Judge’s order halts Nov. 5 charter election

Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on Thursday ordered the city of Austin to eliminate 13 proposed charter amendments from the Nov. 5 ballot because City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act in setting a hearing on the proposed charter items. Other items on the ballot, such as Council races, are not impacted by the order.

In granting the temporary injunction sought by the Save Our Springs Alliance, Bill Bunch and Joe Riddell, the judge found that Council “did not provide adequate notice for the Council’s August 14, 2024 meeting, agenda item number 12, to approve the election.”

The plaintiffs complained that although the city widely publicized the fact that Council would be voting on the new budget on Aug. 14, there was no special advertising about the proposed charter amendments. According to the lawsuit, Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by failing to list each of the proposed charter amendments, even though the public would be asked to vote on each of those amendments individually. The judge agreed.

In addition, the judge found that the plaintiffs would likely suffer irreparable injury if the temporary injunction were not granted. Ballots for Hays and Williamson counties will be set today, Aug. 30, and ballots for Travis County will be set on Sept. 5.

The judge found that if a temporary injunction were not issued, there would be a charter election on Nov. 5 without the city “having strictly complied with the Texas Open Meetings Act … to allow for public testimony on such agenda items of special interest to the public to provide sufficient notice of the subjects of any meetings pertaining thereto.”

The judge set a hearing on a permanent injunction in the case for Jan. 21, 2025, which is after the election. Council could certainly ask the 3rd Court of Appeals for an expedited hearing and ruling, but even an expedited process would take weeks if not months.

Gamble’s ruling followed issuance of a temporary restraining order by Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle on the same issues on Aug. 22.

In addition to the district court case, plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Aleshire also asked the Texas Supreme Court to intervene and prevent the city from holding the contested charter election. After winning the argument in district court on Thursday, Aleshire told the Austin Monitor that the Supreme Court had rejected his clients’ request to take action on the matter.

During the Council hearing on Aug. 14 and during an earlier Council meeting in July, Bunch sought to speak on each of the proposed charter amendments. However, Mayor Kirk Watson told him he could have only three minutes. At that point, Bunch said, “All right. I have to see you in the court again.”

The SOS Alliance and Bunch previously sued the city in April over Open Meetings Act violations. The city lost that case also.

Watson called Bunch’s name several times during the Council meeting on Thursday morning. However, he did not appear at City Hall until Thursday afternoon after the court hearing.

When asked for a comment on the ruling, Council Member Ryan Alter responded via email: “I am very disappointed in today’s ruling that will deprive Austin voters the opportunity to improve their local government this November. If approved, the proposed ballot measures would have increased public participation in Charter elections, improved our independent redistricting process, and made the City Attorney more directly accountable to the people. Now, Austinites won’t even get a chance to weigh in, and we will all have to wait on these and other positive reforms.”

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