Let’s be clear. I don’t live in the City of Bastrop. I can’t vote on City matters. City elections are non-partisan so there aren’t primaries where my positions in Republican politics would come into play.
But, I did spend ten years in elected office: six on a Town Council and four as the Mayor of a town of 16,000 people under a strong mayor, weak council form of government. So, I know how the game is played.
People who live in the City of Bastrop should rise up in anger at what’s happening in their City. A voting majority of the City Council can meet in private according to their current charter.
That voting majority is trying its hardest to keep that power, to be able to decide issues away from the public view, to run government in private. This is completely opposite of government “of the people, for the people and by the people”.
Frankly, who do they think they are? Do they think that they are smarter or more privileged than any other resident of the City of Bastrop? Who said they had all the ideas? How did they learn what they could and couldn’t do as Council members? Were they born with this knowledge and others weren’t?
First, they came after Mayor Nelson. He had an affair. Not good, but not illegal, and not a rationale for overturning the will of the voters. John Kirkland said citizens asked him if there was a way to recall the mayor, yet the petition submitted has 96% of the signatures collected by 3 Council members, a former Council member, and their families. No one has any idea what people were told at the door when asked to sign this petition, but my guess is it wasn’t that an audit and investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the Mayor. I’ll bet they didn’t tell people that the mayor had the legal right to keep his private cell phone data private. Did they tell people that there was no subpoena for that cell phone data? One would think if there was a criminal investigation into the Mayor that his private cell phone would have been subpoenaed.
From this former mayor’s perspective, this is an attempt to get rid of Mayor Nelson and install a mayor of their choice and one they can control.
Now, they’re going after the City attorney. Monday night’s Special meeting now includes an Executive Session “to discuss the duties of the City Attorney.” My guess is he won’t play ball with them, won’t support their shenanigans, won’t muddy the legal waters to give them the power they so desperately desire.
I’ve seen this movie before. If the citizens of the City of Bastrop don’t pay attention, get involved and stop this, they’ll end up living in a city they don’t like and they don’t recognize.