Please make note, Mrs. Webb never spoke in that meeting. The lady on the front (I don't know who she was) spoke and some others. You owe her an apology. Please correct this.

Thanks for letting me know, I have corrected that.

I was not in the meetings and I thank this website for providing the video & transcript.It just sounds to me like this Webb person knew the rules but for some unknown reason, chose to disregard them.  It is likely that this behavior has been tolerated in the City government for a long time and I personally know that it has in a few instances.  It also sounds like a few of the city council members have a burr under their saddle about this guy for some reason.  Based on the video and transcript, it is hard to tell what the truth is.  It seems as if there are some personal issues under there somewhere.

This needs to change permanently by formalizing the employee disciplinary policy within the city not for just this person but for everyone.  It would ensure that employees get treated the same and fairly while at the same time removing considerable room for criticism of the city council and city leadership.

The city personnel policy needs to outline what steps need to be taken in disciplinary situations.  If the employee is, as this guy seems, blatant in the disregard of the spirit as well as letter of the law as made clear by the governing body, then that employee, after the first written reprimand, would be terminated without regard to any ancillary issues – medical or otherwise.  If the infraction were not blatant, perhaps even a second written reprimand would be appropriate.  In any case, this section in the personnel policy needs to carefully lay out a procedure for dealing with these kinds of issues and not leave them as they are today which is an one-off-ad-hoc decision.   

By the way, the Mayor (such as she is) was completely out of line reading that letter in open session.  It had nothing to do with whether or not the person was doing their job or not; nothing to do with the subject at hand and was an obvious ploy by the mayor to influence the vote.  Anyone competent to be Mayor would have known better.

Businesses complain that the ordinances are not evenly enforced, and that is likely and likely intentional, but the employees can equally argue that the employment rules are not evenly enforced.   I would suggest that the city get a manual from a bigger city or a corporation and modify it as necessary and that the Council hold the Administrator or Mayor responsible for its enforcement.  Set out the rules in an impersonal logical way so that when a situation like this comes up, everyone will understand the rules and their enforcement.

Since the claims made by others against Mr. Webb cannot be proven with written documentation, then the council made the correct decision.  If however, the employee continues to behave without regard to the city official rules and regulations, he should be automatically fired.

The city council and mayor need to learn from this.   It does not take a long memory to recall similar situations in the past with equally unpleasant and contentious outcomes; outcomes that should have resulted in such a policy.  If this kind of situation occurs again with this person or any other employee, then the mayor and council are at fault for not dealing with it in a formalized manner and establishing and publicizing its disciplinary policy. 

Everyone needs to know that the city does have an employee handbook and a policy on this such matter.  The city/council did not follow the policy, the policy is that an employee has to be written up 3 times for the same infraction before they can be terminated.  I feel that they should make this policy public knowledge or each of them read it themselves before something like this happens again.  i believe only 1 of the persons that they spoke of on Code Enforcement is certified.  I would also like to know why the spuervisor kept his mouth shut during all of this.  I guess he was too busy riding around town to even know what was going on.

@LTTF-that's very interesting. Will check on that next week.

@salon-while you are checking into that, check this out too, a friend of mine was told that (this was by a city employee) the current supervisor, RB, is not certified in code enforcement.   They do not believe that he has ever been to school for it and is the current employees still going to school for their license in waste water and drinking water, the license go from A(which is the highest to D, They have to have a license in each one so that they can check on the wells and the treatment plant by the expo

Does the city supervisor have to be certified? It's a good question. copy of city superintendent job description. Incidentally, I have been wondering if maybe, between stopping the city administrator job search and bumping up Bruce to be head of Oakdale, if this is a plan to put Bruce in instead of a city administrator? What do you think?

Looks like an administrator would have more power than a supervisor. Here's my read on what's going on: the mayor does not want her power diminished by the addition of an administrator. She wants someone to do her bidding, period.

So if there was not a disciplinary letter in Mr. Webb’s personnel file for disregarding ordinances and CP, was there one in his supervisor’s file for not following the personnel policy? 

If it is the norm for the employment policies not to be followed, it explains the behavior of both Mr. Webb and his supervisor.  If employees can do what they wish without consequences then why bother enforcing anything other than what they want?

Without effective leadership, the policies, ordinances and CP will only be followed at the whim of the employees and that should surprise no one.  By the way, if you put one of the current people in charge, nothing will change.  Our current Mayor is only matched in incompetence by former mayor Connie.  

@ salon, thanks for putting that up so that all can see.  I am really surprised that they have not included in either of the job descriptions that they have to have a license in waster water and drinking water. I believe and you can correct me if I am wrong, that they have to have a: AA in waster water and ground water and of course be certified in Code Enforcement.  And I don't see that any where.  To me, and this is only my opinion, they make it sound like anyone  can do this job.  I just don't know what to think about any of this.  It's almost like the City, pardon the pun, is going to hell in a hand basket.

@ Fredrica  Fubar , in my mind, I don't believe that there was a  disciplinary letter put in the supervisor's file.  I don't know if he was shocked to hear this news or he was trying to hide himself not to be dragged into all the mess.  But as a supervisor he should have stepped up and told him where he was going wrong, just like he should do with all the employees.  You are right about  the current people in charge.  I really don't know if anyone has noticed in , my opinion only, how much a disarray the city looks now a days.  Our current Mayor can not even get to the meetings on time and she has to play with her cell phone while she should be taking care of City business.

Here's what I was told today. First, although the personnel handbook does have procedures for disciplining employees, they allow options such as oral reprimand-in other words, there is no requirement that a reprimand must lead to a letter in a file. Second, the job descriptions are what they are- if there are no education requirements listed in a job req, then there is no requirement for the person applying to have any particular education or certification.

So, does that mean that anyone from off the street can hire on. Then go around town and check the wells that we get our drinking water from and not know how to properly do this job because they were not trained and certified.

So based on the above, we are not going to fix the problem and can expect the employees to continue to enforce only what they wish to enforce.  No penalty and no records.  Sounds to me like we are setting ourselves up to repete this kind of situation again.  Let me see, that is 4 that I know about.  How many will it take before the city govenrment fixes the underlying problem?

No one should be surprised the next time this same sort of thing happens; and it will. 

Here's what I think needs to happen. If the job descriptions don't contain the level of education or certification that the citizens want, then the citizens need to speak up. Go tell your city councilperson, go speak up in public comments at the beginning of every city meeting and ask for this to be put on the agenda for discussion. Same thing for personnel issues, which I want to write about at length in the next day- if the procedures don't explicitly spell out writing up infractions, they can be changed. From my POV,none of this is written in stone AND the city council is essentially working for the citizen and not the other way around.

This problem is just one more reminder that the city needs an administrator. How come Glen Rose still doesn't have one? The Mayor.

Honestly, I am wondering, and I think the all day *retreat* which is an open meeting for the public to attend, where the discussion about the city administrator will happen again will be revealing.

When and where will the "retreat" take place?

Although there's no agenda yet for it, July 10th is the date and I believe that they will be meeting at council chambers. Last time they went out to the Somervell Field House out by Luminant. Hub recorded that one; the only record of that meeting is the video he shot. I think they didn't realize that you can't just go off and have a meeting with all the council people and it not be an open meeting where you have to follow the Open Meetings Act.

In reponse to your earlier comment about speaking up at the council meetings.  i have emailed the city supervisor asking why it is ok that most of the city employees ride around without wearing seat belts, using city vehicles for personal use and  having non city employees (children) in the vehicles.  If I get no response from this, then maybe you will find out who I am at a council meeting during the comments from the public.

Heh! Hope you do!

didn't make it. If you did go, do a top level post with what you thought. If I get a chance in the next couple of days, I'll go get the audio from the city.

@salon, I did not make it either had  family not feeling too well last night.  I'm wondering what they decided on with the peddlers on the square.  I sure would miss seeing them there.