TML executive director disputes Mercedes mayor's claim

The executive director of the Texas Municipal League said Monday that the resolution seeking to lessen jail-time penalties for violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act did pass with "overwhelming" support at the nonprofit organization’s annual conference.

Frank Sturzl disputed the belief of TML board member Mercedes Mayor Joel Quintanilla and Mercedes City Commissioner Ruben Guajardo that the resolution failed.

"The city officials must be very confused," Sturzl said Monday.

Contrary to what Quintanilla and Commissioner Guajardo said Friday, Sturzl maintained that both TML’s Resolutions Committee and the membership passed the resolution Oct. 23.

Sturzl also said that the TML board had not considered the resolutions as Quintanilla said Friday.

Sturzl said that the TML board would make a decision on the resolutions until December 2010, just before the new state legislative session in January 2011.

Should the TML board adopt the resolution, TML would lobby state representatives and senators to ease the enforcement penalties.

On Monday, Guajardo was amazed to hear Sturzle’s contention: "Wow," Guajardo said, still believing that the resolution did not pass. Quintanilla was not immediately available for comment.

The meetings act states that an elected or appointed official of a board commits a misdemeanor offense if one or several meet in numbers less than a quorum for the purpose of secret deliberations. They could be fined up to $500 and spend up to six months in jail if they have secret deliberations.

Sturzl said that the limitation on speech raises an important question: What penalty should be imposed on a local official who commits a violation of the Act, no matter how inadvertent or inconsequential? In Texas, the penalty can be imprisonment.

He referred to a 2005 case where two city council members in Alpine were indicted for violating the meetings act. The charge was later dropped.

He said thousands of elected officials throughout the state agree that the jail penalties are unjust, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.

Keith Elkins, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, on the other hand, said that without the criminal sanctions, "you don’t really have a law."

"They want to take the teeth out of the Texas Open Meetings Act," Elkins said of TML and some cities that plan to challenge its constitutionality.

Elkins said that a vote for the TML resolution, "is a vote against open government."