Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 34

Council Discusses Etiquette Issues • Lawyers Deliberate About Deliberations • Who Doesn’t Like Lower Taxes? • Apply to Become a CFBISD Trustee

I have a piece of advice for you, readers. Maybe it’s because I worked on this edition of the Coppell Chronicle while on a plane this morning, or maybe it’s due to the content you’re about to consume. Either way, I advise you to fasten your seatbelts, place your seat backs and tray tables in their upright positions, and hold on tight. There’s turbulence ahead.

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Council Discusses Etiquette Issues

The agenda for the City Council’s work session on Tuesday included a “Review of Council Code of Conduct and House Rules.” Mayor Wes Mays got things started, and this excerpt from his opening remarks will come up later:

“Please, ask your questions,” the mayor said. “You know, we’re here to ask questions. But when you get the answer, accept the answer. … You may not like the answer, but that answer is the answer.”

After about seven minutes of remarks, Mays requested a discussion: “How are we going to move forward with our behaviors and our decision-making process? How are we going to get better?”

Most of our city’s elected officials had something to contribute. For example, Mayor Pro Tem Brianna Hinojosa-Smith, one of the senior council members, said this was the first time she has felt like the Coppell City Council was not where it should be.

“I feel like, right now, we lack trust,” she said. “I feel like, sometimes, we don’t listen to others.”

One of the council’s newest members, Kevin Nevels, questioned whether all of his peers felt like they had room to speak their truth.

“I want to provide a collaborative environment where people do feel comfortable, you know, saying how they feel,” Nevels said, “and they feel like they can say it openly.”

Hinojosa-Smith and Nevels both said it was important for all council members to have “buy-in” regarding the council’s Code of Conduct and House Rules. Cliff Long agreed.

“If you don’t buy in, as a council person, let us know,” Long said. “Let the mayor know, and we’ll talk about it.”

The only two council members who didn’t want to talk about it were John Jun and Biju Mathew, who were stymied in their efforts to question City Manager Mike Land during the council’s Sept. 28 meeting (as reported in last week’s Chronicle). After Jun and Mathew declined to discuss the topic at hand on Tuesday, Hinojosa-Smith and Nevels addressed the elephant in the room. Nevels went first.

“I want to hear from you guys,” he said to Jun and Mathew. “I want to make sure that I understand where your head is at, because that’s going to help me be a better council member and help us function better as a council.”

Hinojosa-Smith followed up by saying that it seemed as if Jun and Mathew didn’t trust the rest of the council or the city staff.

“We’re trying to collaborate, and how do we get there?” she asked. “If these rules aren’t what you think they — like, they don’t make sense, we shouldn’t follow them, you have an issue with them — like, help us understand that.”

Jun then read a portion of the city’s Code of Conduct: “The public confidence and respect can best be promoted if all public officials and employees, whether paid or unpaid, whether elected or appointed, will uniformly treat all citizens with courtesy, impartiality, fairness, and equality under the law.” He asked Land if there was anyone in the city who is not treated this way.

Land’s response: “I provide complete transparency to all the information that’s requested. I treat all the council members the same. I provide information. When one council member asks [for] information, I provide it to the rest of the council. If there’s a particular issue, I’ll be happy to talk about it.”

Jun then asked the same question again. Land said he felt like he was being deposed, and he also said he had answered that question. Nevertheless, the city manager began to say he wasn’t aware of anyone being treated differently, but Jun cut him off, insisting on a “yes” or “no” answer. That didn’t sit well with Nevels.

“You have a very accusatory tone,” he told Jun, “and you make it sound like he’s done something to break the law.” He also added that Jun’s tone “makes people feel like garbage.”

Hinojosa-Smith chimed in with statements about Jun’s behavior being “unprofessional” and “unacceptable.” She said Jun doesn’t consistently treat people with respect.

“Are you implying that he’s broken the law?” she asked Jun. “What are you getting at?”

In an apparent attempt to cut the tension, Mays said he wanted to hear from Mathew. For the second time, Mathew said he had nothing to say until the next agenda item: “Discuss Council Agenda Request Process.”

Council Member Mark Hill then asked Jun if he suspects Land has treated someone unfairly. That’s when Jun dropped this bombshell:

“When I got elected, Mike told me straight up there are two people in this city that we do not treat the same way. Today, the answer [to the question of whether we treat people differently] was, ‘No, we don’t.’ So OK.” He then referenced one of Mays’ opening pieces of advice: “I mean, if that’s the answer, that’s the answer I’ll take.”

Mays asked Jun to expand on what he was told when he got elected last December, but Jun declined.

“This is where the openness and discussion comes forward and helps a lot in letting us understand what’s driving your motivation,” the mayor said.

“I don’t have a motivation,” Jun said. “I just asked a question, and he gave me an answer. OK, that’s quite different from what I was initially told, but OK, I’ll take it as that.”

Before the discussion was over, Mays ended several seconds of awkward silence with the understatement of the year: “I’m not feeling that the tension in the room has been reduced any.”

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Lawyers Deliberate About Deliberations

The City Council eventually moved on to their next agenda item, “Discuss Council Agenda Request Process.” Two weeks earlier, John Jun and Biju Mathew were told that they couldn’t ask City Manager Mike Land on-the-record questions about the report he provides at most meetings regarding project updates and future agendas.

During the council’s Sept. 28 meeting, City Attorney Bob Hager told Mathew that such questions were prohibited because the “City Manager Reports” agenda item was so generic. Under the Texas Open Meetings Act, Hager said, the public needs proper notice of specific items that the council will deliberate.

After much back and forth between Mathew and Land on Tuesday, it seemed that the Wednesday before a Tuesday meeting is a council member’s deadline to request that an item be added to the agenda. What I found more interesting was an exchange between the city attorney and Jun, who is also a lawyer.

Jun cited a section of the Open Meetings Act with this scintillating title: “Governing Body of Municipality or County: Reports About Items of Community Interest Regarding Which No Action Will be Taken.” He said this section should apply to Land’s regular updates about street projects.

Hager: “But when you start deliberating and debating –”

While waving his hand, Jun said, “I’m not going there. I’m not talking about deliberating.” He then read the lengthy opening sentence of that section of the law, which I’ll summarize thusly: A governing body may receive from staff a report about items of community interest — without having given notice of the subject — if no action is taken and possible action is not discussed.

Jun then read from a subsequent section of the law, “Inquiry Made at Meeting,” which says the public-notice requirements don’t apply to questions that are answered with “a statement of specific factual information.”

“So in actuality,” Jun said, “when [Land] talked about construction projects that’s going on, we could have asked about certain things. That’s not a debate [or] deliberation.”

Hager told Jun to look up the definition of “deliberation,” which Hager himself had earlier defined as an exchange between council members or an exchange between council members, city staff, and/or the public.

Merriam-Webster, the preferred dictionary of discerning journalists, provides two primary definitions:

• the act of thinking about or discussing something and deciding carefully

• a discussion and consideration by a group of persons (such as a jury or legislature) of the reasons for and against a measure

“If he’s giving back a factual statement about that particular thing, that’s not a deliberation,” Jun argued.

Hager eventually countered that the city manager’s reports on street projects are not “items of community interest.” He gave the following example of such items: “The Coppell High School football team is going to play a game on Saturday night.” Hager said street projects are “a matter of public business.”

Before throwing up his hands, Jun said he believes street and lane closures are items of community interest. (Speaking of which, be sure to read this if you plan to drive on South Belt Line Road in the next year or so.)

Before ending this article, I’ll point out that the phrase “items of community interest” does not appear in the section of the law that says inquiries can be answered with statements of specific factual information.

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Who Doesn’t Like Lower Taxes?

Whenever my wife and I have a reason to list or discuss three things, we jokingly label them as A, 2, and D. (It’s non-stop fun at our house.) I was reminded of this running gag as I listened to the City Council debate what to do with the money Coppell recently made by selling 475 acres near North Lake. According to their agenda, the council had two options.

• Option A: Redeem a portion of the city’s general obligation refunding bonds prior to their maturity

• Option B: Spend the money on authorized projects

The debate turned into somewhat of a “who’s on first?” routine because what was labeled Option A on the council’s agenda was labeled Option 2 in the staff’s memo to the council, while what was labeled Option B on the agenda was labeled Option 1 in the memo.

Once the council got that straight, they unanimously voted for Option A — or should I say Option 2? Whatever you want to call it, the council told the staff to redeem the bonds prior to their maturity. According to the memo, that should allow for a reduction in the debt portion of the city’s tax rate for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2022.

Before the debate, Mayor Wes Mays provided this background: “This topic goes back close to 20 years ago, and it is all about North Lake. It involved council meetings that went well into the early-morning hours. It involved many, many hours of negotiations. It involved a lawsuit. It involved many, many, many hours — hundreds and thousands of hours — of staff time.

“The end result was the City of Coppell ended up owning some water, some land, and a dam. And on October 1st, we successfully sold that back to the original owner that had right of first refusal. And that sale was consummated about 12 days ago, and the funds have been deposited.”

The “Notice of Redemption” attached to the resolution approved by the council on Tuesday says $8.355 million of those funds will be spent on redeeming those bonds.

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Apply to Become a CFBISD Trustee

This article contains information you can’t find anywhere else, only because I’m willing to pester public officials on weekends.

As you may recall from last week’s Chronicle, the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District — which includes portions of Coppell and Valley Ranch — is short one trustee. Juan Renteria resigned after less than a year of service because the Dallas County Commissioners Court appointed him to take over for a civil court judge who had resigned.

On Thursday evening, the CFBISD Board of Trustees held a special meeting to discuss how to fill the vacancy. Dawn Parnell, the district’s Chief Communications Officer, told me on Saturday that the trustees decided they will make an appointment of their own.

Renteria’s term was set to expire in May of 2023. The board plans to appoint a replacement who will serve until May of 2022. CFBISD voters will then get to decide who fills the seat for the remaining 12 months of Renteria’s term.

To be eligible for this appointment, you must be a registered voter who has lived in the school district for at least six months. (You also can’t be a convicted felon, unless you’ve been pardoned.) If you’re interested, you’ll need to provide a resume and fill out an application and a questionnaire. The application deadline is Nov. 2, and the appointment will most likely happen on Dec. 2.

For more information, contact Kim Castanon via castanonk@cfbisd.edu or 972-968-6185.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• Coppell ISD is offering “Super Substitute” bonuses. If you work as a substitute teacher on a Monday or a Friday, you get an extra $10 per day. If you work at least 10 jobs per pay period, you get a $250 bonus. If you work at least 15 jobs per pay period, you get a $300 bonus. Click here for more information.

• Girl Scout Troop 1035 is trying to gather 100 new stuffed animals for patients at Children's Medical Center Dallas. Donations can be dropped off at 568 Austin Court.

• The Dallas Morning News recently published a truly bananas story that involves the Coppell High School basketball team.

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Community Calendar

Shariah Law Theory and Practice: In an open civil forum scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library, local scholars and Coppell Muslims will examine the purpose of the Shariah, its ultimate goal, and whether it is misunderstood.

Coffee with Coppell Cops: You and your kids are invited to meet our police officers between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at 151 Coffee. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. that same day, bring expired prescription medications to the Coppell Police Department for the DEA National Prescription Drug Takeback. (They will not accept syringes, over-the-counter medications, or vitamins.)

Legendary: The Coppell Community Chorale’s fall concert — which will be performed at 7 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Oct. 24 — will be a tribute to legends of all kinds, including stories, songs, and performers.