The Bee Cave Bee

Last Thursday (March 8th) saw a special Council Meeting consisting of 30 minutes of public comments and then an hour of executive sessions.

The larger issue was the Backyard's lawsuit that is against the City and three council members who voted against their variances (King, Goodwin and Parker).

The newer complication is that Adrian Overstreet is sueing for a simple curb cut permit from the City which is tied up in Milam's other development - The Terrace Condos opposite the HCG.

I reproduce here - with permission and with no edits - the very useful commentary published by incoming Mayor Monty Parker on his closed FaceBook Group.

"Here are my notes from tonight's Special City Council meeting:
AGENDA . Special Meeting . City Council
Thursday, March 8, 2018 . 6:00 P.M., City Hall

1. Call meeting to order @6pm
2. Roll Call (all members present)
3. Close Special Meeting @ 6:05pm
4. Open Executive Session.
A. Consultation with Attorney regarding litigation and defense of the Hill Country Texas Galleria LLC Development Project located on Bee Cave Parkway.
B. Consultation with Attorney regarding litigation of the Backyard Development Project located on Bee Cave Parkway.
5. Close Executive Session @ 6:15pm
6. Open Special Meeting.
7. Consider action, if any, on Executive Session.
[Motion to approve hiring the law firm of Russell, Rodriguez, Hyde & Bullock to represent the City in the Galleria Texas lawsuit passed unanimously]
8. Discussion regarding litigation of the Backyard Development Project located on Bee Cave Parkway.
9. Discussion regarding litigation of the Hill Country Texas Galleria LLC Development Project located on Bee Cave Parkway.
[Both items 8 & 9 were opened at the same time:

* Citizen comments:
* Adrian Overstreet - gave handouts to Council on the reasons for the lawsuit; explained reason for lawsuit and regret over having to file it; said “all I want is my curb cut”; Said if the City gives it to him, he’ll dismiss the lawsuit and request no legal fees from the city; said he feels like city staff has been marching for Milam and against him;

* John Colman - comments about both lawsuits; both suits expose a flawed development process regarding signed ordinances being different from what Council votes on; needs confirmation of what is witnessed in council meetings to be reflected in ordinances

* Victoria Winburn - noted the risks to city and it’s citizens from lawsuits; citrizens elected us to be leaders and leaders are given trust by the voters; regarding Overstreet's lawsuit, he has been a friend of the city, makes her ask ”how did we get here?”; ordinances that languish for months before signature affixed are flawed; must consider new process where council gets last look; something is broken; counting on us to get it right

* Ed Deshields - Backyard lawsuit is weird; suing council members is harassment; the Terrace suit is different; witnessed the meeting where Milam and Overstreet made a deal; ethics issue when the ordinance doesn’t reflect the vote;

* Carrell Killebrew - not happy with the agenda requested not being followed; real issues with the two lawsuits; City needs to do corrective actions; Council should hire own special council to investigate; so many actions that all favor Milam; anyone part of the process of approving the tainted ordinances can not be part of the investigation; Ms. Murphy, Ms Oskoui, Ms. Akers and Mr. Askey; Home Rule Charter calls for strong manager - weak mayor and we’re not doing this; need to scrub our ordinances;

* Paula Boyd - regarding Backyard lawsuit, baffles her why we’re at this point; connection to 71 has always been a requirement; why do we keep giving him considerations? We should not continually revisit it; regarding the Terrraces, why does council keep bending over backwards for Milam? no developer should be put above the interests of citizens;

* Karen Phillips - Backyard lawsuit is disconcerting, and developer's plans keep changing; ashamed that this has been going on for so long; lawsuit against council members who represent us is a threat; sad that 3 are personally named; lawsuit is an old fashioned way to force a vote in Milam's favor; Milam’s history and personal life with his checkered past should be a warning to us; Overstreet lawsuit, he has been instrumental in developing things in our city, hates for him to be in the position he’s in; illegal document that council didn’t vote on is a big problem; promoted new procedure for council approval of ordinances

* Steve Schmidt - agree with all the others; Terrace lawsuit, he attended the meetings and heard the agreement made; Milam made the deal in public and he witnessed it; ordinance that was signed versus council minutes are not in sync; why does it take 6 months to get the ordinance signed?; the Backyard suit, concerns him that the connection to 71 has always been required so why does it keep coming up?

* Jon Cobb - 2 months ago, everyone got along fine, then the Milam lawsuit was filed and look what happened. His purpose was to divide the city council and that’s exactly what has happened; said Tom Matzen came out of meeting and was livid, calling out the 3 council members who were personally sued; Milam not the kind of person we should deal with; Overstreet’s suit should be dismissed today; the way we do ordinances is wrong; our city attorney is the problem; there are significant discrepancies between what we pass and and what is signed; as elected officials we must fight against adopting the mentality that we know better than our constituents.

* Councilmember Matzen - regarding Cobb’s statement: wanted everyone to know that 3 members walked out of executive session and we didn’t get to discuss a $50 million lawsuit and he would do it again if he had to.

*
Adjourned to executive session at 6:45
[No action from executive session]
Special Meeting adjourned at 7:52"

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