By Andy Sevilla.
Though Kyle council members finally expanded the city’s boundaries last week after a failed attempt in late October, the elected leaders were not successful in annexing the full 374 acres the majority wanted.
With council member Samantha LeMense out sick and Becky Selbera 12-minutes late, Diane Hervol and Ray Bryant called the shots during the first half of the “rushed” 20-minute meeting on Dec. 18, as key items failed with 3-2 votes.
Bryant opposed all annexation proceedings except those along the FM 150 corridor, which expanded the city’s reach to SH 21. That area was identified as a future high-density commercial zone. City leaders hope to cash in on the potential future sales tax revenues.
Hervol opposed annexation along portions of Bebee and Goforth Roads. With both Bryant and Hervol opposing certain proceedings, Mayor Lucy Johnson and council members Chad Benninghoff and David Wilson were unable to reach the four-vote requirement to advance annexation.
“It’s frustrating that the council was thwarted by the minority in this case,” Johnson said of a final failed attempt to annex portions of Bebee Road and Goforth Road. “That’s what happens when you don’t have all seven council members on the dais – the minority can thwart the council.”
For Bryant, it wasn’t about thwarting the council. He said he opposed the city’s “rushed” annexation process from the beginning, and that residents need more time to fully vet the proposed annexations and the city needs an annexation plan, which it lacks.
“These weren’t prevailingly residential areas, these were commercial areas that I believe it’s important that we monitor as the city grows,” Johnson said after the meeting. “Not just to be able to capture the sales tax base, but to make sure that commercial development continues to be quality development, and often times, particularly on the east side, it’s not.”
Hervol said she wasn’t comfortable with the rushed process, the lack of an annexation plan and that the cost-benefit analysis didn’t pass muster.
“I think, in the end, it will cost the city a lot more money to provide police protection, improve roads and get utilities out there, than what we will receive from taxes,” Hervol told the Hays Free Press.
Selbera, who missed the two failed votes, motioned to reconsider those items.
Responding to her motion, City Attorney Frank Garza said, “under Robert’s Rules (of Order, which serve as parliamentary authority), the person who makes a motion for reconsideration has to be from the prevailing side.”
The Kyle City Charter requires four affirmative votes for a motion to be approved. However, Garza explained that because the annexation motions failed, and Hervol and Bryant were the only two who voted to defeat the motions, they are on the prevailing side.
“Well your charter requires four votes for (a motion) to be successful, Garza told council members. “Since you didn’t have four votes, the two votes -- even though they were the minority between (the) 3-2 (votes) - were the successful side. So they are the prevailing side in this very unique instance.”
Upon a final request to reconsider, Bryant told Selbera he was “not willing to.”
“I didn’t think so,” Selbera said. “Just thought I’d ask.”
Johnson reacted to the meeting, saying, “I think that it’s unfortunate that this happened. I’m also really shocked that after much work with property owners...including Merlin Friesenhahn, and approval of that development agreement unanimously last night, that that vote was changed tonight.”
Exemplifying the rushed process, Hervol said she mistakenly voted contrary to a development agreement for Friesenhahn’s 17.6 acres on Bebee and Goforth that she voted to approve the night before.
Per the agreement, 5.626 acres of the Friesenhahn property would be annexed, just enough to allow the city to continue annexing other properties along Bebee Road contiguously, meanwhile the remaining 12.07 acres would be voluntarily annexed in five years. The property owner and the city agreed to those terms.
Hervol said after the Dec. 18 meeting she mistakenly voted down the annexation of Friesenhahn’s 5.626 acres, causing its annexation to fail, because the meeting was “rushed” and “everything was happening so fast.” She told the Hays Free Press she would not be against reconsidering the matter.
In a separate instance showcasing how rushed the meeting was, council members made and seconded a motion to approve the annexation of 98.93 acres of land along FM 150, then Johnson continued by reading the next agenda item before council members voted on the previous matter. After the public alerted the council the vote was skipped, the council went back and voted on the item.
Ultimately, Kyle’s borders were expanded by about 317 acres.
