Lawsuit seeks to remove Austin Charter amendments from Nov. 5 ballot
The Austin City Council violated Texas’ open meetings law when it placed a list of charter amendments on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
The lawsuit was filed in Travis County’s 98th District Court by attorneys representing Save Our Springs Alliance, a nonprofit environmental organization, its executive director Bill Bunch, and Joe Riddell, a former attorney in the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
It alleges that the city’s governing body violated both the law’s citizen participation and public notice provisions when it approved the election at a hearing last Wednesday because all of the proposed changes were grouped together in one agenda item rather than addressed individually.
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the City Council’s approval of putting the charter amendments on the ballot. Because Monday is the last day an election can be ordered, the 13 charter amendments the City Council approved last week would not make it onto the ballot this year if a judge rules in the group’s favor.
“The Austin City Council is becoming lawless, and this lawsuit is another example of their arrogant disregard for transparency. Mayor Watson and the majority of the City Council are undermining democracy by violating the Texas Open Meetings Act,” said Bill Aleshire, a former Travis County judge and attorney for the plaintiffs, in a press release.
Bunch has had success in the past in suing the mayor and city council of Austin for violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“We are reviewing the complaint we just received and are not yet in a position to comment on its substance,” city spokesman David Ochsner said in a written statement to the American-Statesman.
The City Charter is a comprehensive legal document containing the rules and regulations of the City of Austin. The proposed charter changes include: increasing the required signature threshold to recall a City Council member from 10% of registered voters in the Council member’s district to 15%; empowering the City Council to appoint and fire the City Attorney; and mandating that initiative elections and citizen-initiated charter elections occur in the November general election in even-numbered years.
