BY ELENI HIMARAS
reporter@ltview.com
The City of Lakeway has applied for a restraining order that would prevent the Lakeway Municipal Utility District’s Ad Hoc Committee, which controls all decisions that fight legislation, from meeting until they post public meetings and bring financial decisions before the board.

“This committee received directive to spend large sums of public money without oversight or public knowledge,” City Manager Steve Jones told the council at a special meeting meeting held Monday to initiate the litigation.
“Such behaviors indicate a lack of understanding or possibly regard for fundamental laws governing public bodies. This behavior could have long lasting implications for the MUD’s taxpayers and ratepayers. And it underscores the city’s contention that the MUD board is less than transparent in its operations.”
While the agenda item stated the council would be voting on initiating the litigation, Bickerstaff and Associates Attorney Emily Rogers told the board that she had filed the petition the previous Friday and was asking for ratification of that filing.
“We were specifically asking the court to rule on open meeting violations as well as illegal delegation of power,” she said.
Mayor Steve Swan said he would table the motion if the Lakeway MUD board members in attendance at the meeting said they would hold a special meeting to address the Open Meeting Act violations. Lakeway MUD Attorney Mike Willatt advised any board member against speaking, saying that it would be “totally contrary to the spirit of the law suit.” He said they would not be following the open meetings law if they spoke of the MUD Board without first posting a meeting to do so.
The day after the meeting, the board released a statement through the public relations firm, Elizabeth Christian and Associates, saying they would fight the law suit vigorously and hold a special board meeting at 11 a.m. Friday to consider retaining counsel.
“Lakeway MUD is deeply disappointed that the Lakeway City Council has initiated litigation against the MUD. We are dismayed that the City of Lakeway would spend taxpayers’ money to pursue legal action against the MUD, particularly since most of the MUD’s customers and taxpayers also are City of Lakeway residents and taxpayers. This pursuit of litigation is nothing short of bullying on the part of the City of Lakeway,” Board President Tom Rogers said in the released statement by the MUD.
When contacted by the Lake Travis View, a representative Elizabeth Christian and Associates, John Egan, said the MUD did not wish to comment beyond the statement and would not respond to why they refused to publicly post the meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee and hold them as open meetings, which is the only thing the law suit seeks.
A phone call to Tom Rogers was not returned as of press time Tuesday.
At the city council meeting, the council retired to executive session with litigator Brad Young for about twenty minutes, at his request.
The recently filed petition asserts:
“The District has delegated its authority to ‘take any action necessary,’ including the expenditure of public funds, to the Ad Hoc Committee, which is more than just a subcommittee of the board as a whole. Two of its members, P.A. Penley and Don Iburg, are private citizens, not members of the board. Mr. Iburg does not even live in the District’s jurisdiction.
“Therefore, the City requests a declaratory judgment that the grant of authority to the Ad Hoc Committee by the District is an unlawful delegation of the board’s authority.
“The City asks this Court to issue an injunction forbidding the Ad Hoc Committee from meeting and taking action on behalf of the District, including the expenditure of funds. Alternatively, the City asks this Court to issue an injunction forbidding the Ad Hoc Committee from meeting unless the meetings are posted in accordance with the Open Meetings Act.”
Members from the audience asked the city council to find a way to settle the conflict without the expensive legislation or litigation.
“I look at this board and I see friends. I look at the MUD board and I see friends,” Dave Point said from the crowd. “It seems to me it’s us and we that are arguing. The members on the MUD board are unpaid volunteers from Lakeway and we should treat them as such.”
Audience members also questioned the council on why the agenda item asked them to initiate the legislation when it had already been initiated. City Manager Steve Jones said that because of the time sensitive nature of the litigation, they filed it as quickly as possible.
“I’m very troubled when I see a public entity among our friends meeting in secret with the ability to spend money in secret. All I really say we need to have happen here is for the MUD to stand up and say, ‘We embrace the Open Meetings Act; we commit to post our meetings, to hold our meetings in public and let the board vote in public and let the people know what they are doing,” Councilman Bob Neighbors said. “It’s not complex. Follow the Open Meetings Act, do it in the public. That’s all I want to see happen. I support everybody.”
After council discussion, Dave DeOme made the motion to file the litigation, seconded by Bob Neighbors and voted upon unanimously by the rest of the council.