City Manager contract would violate city law

Although the Beaumont City Council has named three finalists for the municipality’s open city manager position, an offer for employment has stalled behind the closed doors of executive session. Following yet more hours of private deliberation on Aug. 2, still nothing.

Community commentary from a couple of citizens that claim to represent “the majority” is heavily in support of Kenneth Williams, the former Buda City Manager, with reports that the majority of council is in favor of the same. However, as revealed from the contractual “agreement” that Williams held at his last job, the elected leaders of Beaumont would be violating their own Charter, aka municipal laws, to compete with Williams’ last compensation package.

From the posting soliciting applicants for the Beaumont City Manager job, the gig appears quite enticing: a roughly $250,000 annual salary, health benefits, paid vacation, vehicle allowance, retirement contribution, administrative allowance and city-paid technology devices. What isn’t a given on the posting: a severance package, paid time off to referee up to 15 hours every week, spousal benefits…

Policy disclaimers posted by the city of Beaumont expressly prohibits contracts that would bind the city into keeping employees they don’t want on the payroll: “The information contained in city policy does not confer an employment contract or right, either expressed or implied, for an employee to remain in the city’s employ, nor does it guarantee any fixed terms and conditions of employment. The city of Beaumont is an at-will employer. An at-will employer is not required to have cause for termination.

“No employee or official has the authority to make any commitments that negate the at-will employment relationship.”

According to Beaumont’s Home Rule Charter, the employment policy affects all employees of the city, and the municipality is precluded from offering employment to a City Manager who isn’t at-will, which also precludes contracts that assure “golden parachutes,” or any provision that would hinder the city – or the employee – from terminating the employer/employee relationship at any time without any legal repercussion.

“The City Manager shall not be appointed for a definite term but may be removed at the will and pleasure of the City Council by a vote of the majority of the entire Council,” the Beaumont Charter details. “The action of the City Council in suspending or removing the City Manager shall be final, it being the intention of this Charter to vest all authority and fix all responsibility for such suspension or removal in the City Council.”

Beaumont’s Charter was established Dec. 6, 1947, but has undergone many revisions over the years. Revisions and changes to the city Charter, though, are subject to public vote, the most recent being conducted May 1, 2021.

Behind the closed doors of the Beaumont City Council Chambers, discussion regarding hiring a new City Manager has been held week after week, with no resolve. Williams, not officially named the lone finalist, but bantered about as heir apparent, has also reportedly been involved in the council’s private meetings, presumably hashing out the terms of employment.

Williams, who served as Buda City Manager from 2008 – 2022, applied for the position after communication with staff of Baker Tilly, a Beaumont-contracted search firm that secured a total of 55 applicants, culled to a list of 16 for presentation to the Beaumont City Council. After looking over the short list from Baker Tilly, the elected leaders narrowed the list to three: Williams, current Interim Beaumont City Manager Chris Boone, and Lionel Lyons.

Williams lists himself as “semi-retired” in the days leading up to his application for the Beaumont job. In December 2021, Williams signed a five-year agreement with the city of Buda to continue as their City Manager, but announced his resignation almost immediately thereafter. In the signed agreement, the recitals detail Williams “expressed a desire to accept this new employment agreement as City Manager of Buda,” retroacting its provisions to the prior Oct. 1. “It is the desire of the City Council to continue to: retain the services of the employee; provide inducement for him to remain in such employment; make possible full work productivity by assuring employee’s morale and peace of mind with respect to future employment security and compensation; and provide for a just means for terminating employee’s employment relationship at such time as may be appropriate in the event employee may be unable to fully discharge his duties or when employer may have cause to terminate his employment.”

Along with an annual salary of $231,161.06, the Buda City Manager package featured benefits like a $22,013.59 per year retirement contribution, $8,000 annual professional development allowance, $12,000 automobile allowance, insurance for him and his wife, and 15 hours paid from every work week to do with as he pleased: “involved in teaching, counseling, refereeing or other non-employer connected business without prior approval of the employer.”

Less than one month after signing on to serve Buda for another five years, Williams announced his resignation effective as of March 31. In a farewell message posted to YouTube on March 28, Williams offered a professional profile and listed “doing things above board” as a legacy of his tenure in the career field.

“I can’t think of anything I would have done differently,” Williams shared. “Did I do everything correct? No. But, we put a lot of effort in what we did.”

By June 18, Williams was announced as a top three finalist for the Beaumont City Manager job. Compared to Buda, Beaumont is a behemoth. Buda, a city just 15 miles from Austin, has a population of 15,108 in 2020 – its height, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, up from 7,295 counted in 2010. Buda has a total area of 5.4 square miles, of which .01 square miles is water.

With a population of 115,282 at the 2020 census, Beaumont is the largest incorporated municipality by population near the Louisiana border. Beaumont is 85.19 square miles, of which 2.73 square miles is water.

In Buda, Williams was responsible for an $87.7 million budget. Beaumont City Council approved the 2022 budget of $295.6 million and boasts 1,317 full-time employees.

In Buda, the City Manager is appointed for an indefinite term, and may be removed at the discretion of the City Council by an affirmative vote of five members of the City Council. Generally, the City Manager’s employment is governed by a contract for services, which lays out his compensation and other conditions of employment, which is approved by the City Council.

Should Beaumont officials elect to offer an agreement to a new City Manager outside of what the Charter prescribes, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department has already opined of the legality in an appeal styled Hansell v City of Long Beach. The case stems from a City Manager contract that offered severance provisions, even though the city Charter defines the city as an at-will employer. The complaining plaintiff was a private citizen that challenged the legality of the City Council’s agreement with the new hire.

“The proceeding should be converted into an action for declaratory judgment, and judgment directed in favor of the plaintiff to the extent that the contractual provision is declared illegal and void,” the Hansell v. City of Long Beach justice wrote. “Of course, the City Charter’s standards must be satisfied.”

“It is fundamental that municipalities are legislatively created and possess only such authority as is granted to them, together with the powers reasonably incident to the authority conferred,” the Supreme Court appeals justice referenced of Whittaker v Village of Franklinville.