San Benito Correspondent
The San Benito City Commission majority are on the warpath again going after Mayor Pete Galvan. First they tried to evict him from the City Commission for leaving an Executive Session during discussion regarding hiring a new City Manager.
Now, the majority placed the following agenda item for this Tuesday’s Regular City Commission meeting wanting to censure the Mayor.
The last few weeks, Mayor Galvan requested, in his capacity as the ex-officio EDC board member, copies of the applications for the open EDC Director position and the names of the Ad Hoc committee reviewing the applications.
On the advice of the EDC attorney, EDC denied his request forcing the Mayor to submit a Public Information Request for the information and triggering the requirement that the EDC ask the Texas Attorney General for an opinion within 45 days.
The main question is Internal vs Public. An internal board member, in his capacity as an ex-officio board member, is not a public disclosure but an internal inter-agency request. Because the records stay within the governance room, candidacy privacy rules (like TPIA section 552.1230) do not apply. Forcing an unnecessary delay was merely a procedural trap.
While direct lawsuits by ex-officio board members are rare, Texas courts and legal doctrines (The Right of Access) firmly establish that all members of a governing board—regardless of voting status—have an inherent common-law "Right of Access" to records required to fulfill their official governance duties.
On the advice of the EDC attorney, EDC denied his request forcing the Mayor to submit a Public Information Request for the information and triggering the requirement that the EDC ask the Texas Attorney General for an opinion within 45 days.
The main question is Internal vs Public. An internal board member, in his capacity as an ex-officio board member, is not a public disclosure but an internal inter-agency request. Because the records stay within the governance room, candidacy privacy rules (like TPIA section 552.1230) do not apply. Forcing an unnecessary delay was merely a procedural trap.
While direct lawsuits by ex-officio board members are rare, Texas courts and legal doctrines (The Right of Access) firmly establish that all members of a governing board—regardless of voting status—have an inherent common-law "Right of Access" to records required to fulfill their official governance duties.
4 comments:
Mayor got elected to that position just like everyone on that commission. Whether they choose to focus their time and energy is completely up to them - however, the people of San Bene are watching. Do you f job! Stop being a bunch of petty crying babies.
The Mayor just posted on Facebook the EDC agenda for tonight's EDC meeting.
They are amending the EDC Bylaws and STRIKING out the section on "ex-officio" which basically eliminates the mayor as an EDC Board member.
This is called dirty politics in plain view.
The May 2027 elections are close at hand. If people don’t like what the 3 majority commission is doing they can vote Gonzalez out in May. But we will see. Hopefully good candidates without criminal convictions run for office.
SAN BENITO…a welfare town at its finest…one giant fucking BARRIO where the Lone Star Card is King and beer and dope can be purchased with food stamps. San Benny is nothing more than a CESSPOOL of humanity; a town where practically no one works a real job.
Post a Comment