By Eleni Himaras
reporter@ltview.com
Lakeway Municipal Utility District directors spent a large portion of last week’s regular meeting working out strategies to make their board more transparent and clean up its image after the recent ordeal with the city.

They decided to keep the contract of their private public relations firm, Elizabeth Christian and Associates, through February 2010, set a new policy on putting items on the agenda, opened a discussion on committee appointments, designated a board member to be responsible for the content of the Web site, set a schedule for revising their policies, and approved some out-of-town conferences for board members.
“All we want to do is be more open,” said board president Tom Rogers.
As of April 30, the MUD had spent about $193,000 on legal fees and professional services. While all of the other contracts have lapsed, the public relations contract would run through February at a total of at least $104,680. This includes a fee of $10,020 per month for the first four months and $7,950 for the subsequent eight months but does not include additional expenses.
“I strongly believe that we should keep Elizabeth’s contract in force,” Rogers said. “I believe that almost all of our 4,000 customers are well-satisfied with the service we provide. However, during the last year, we’ve had some people exercising their rights to attend the meetings and make comments, many of which have been negative; all of which have been duly reported by the Lake Travis View. This has caused some questions to be asked in the community along the lines of ‘What’s going on in the MUD?’ We need to restore our reputation in the community and create an environment where good people will step forward to serve on our board and on our committees. Elizabeth thinks she can do this and I agree.”
The board extended the contract without a vote.
Director Kay Andrews questioned the money paid to the firm beyond the contract and also questioned why Christian called the Austin American-Statesman during the ordeal.
Andrews moved to terminate the contract but it died for a lack of second. Director Jerry Hietpas had left by the time the item was heard after the board’s lunch break.
Previously, the only person who could put an item on a meeting agenda was the president. Now, under a provision voted on unanimously by the board, any MUD customer or board member may submit an item and if it gets approved by two of the five board members, it will be put on the subsequent agenda.
“I think just out of courtesy to the customers if they want to put something on I think we ought to somehow tell them…they should have it in maybe a week ahead so [title] Margaret [Cathey] has time,” said Andrews.
While no deadline is specifically written into the policy, customers should know it will take some time to get the necessary board approval and that agendas must be posted on the Friday previous to a regular Wednesday board meeting.
The board did not take any action on changing the way in which committees are selected, as they have often had trouble filling those seats, but requested that citizens come forward with ideas on the matter in the form of an agenda item. One thing they did decide, however, was that both in-district and out-of-district customers may serve on a committee.
Also, just as the Lakeway City Council has a specified liaison to the MUD, the MUD decided to appoint a director as a liaison to the council.
“I would like to appoint a MUD liaison to the city council and I would like to suggest Kay doing that if she has time,” Rogers said.
She accepted.
At a recent board meeting, MUD customer Karen Bradford presented the board of directors with a bevy of suggestions on how they could be more open, one of which was to better utilize the recently updated MUD Web site to post several official documents.
The board unanimously appointed board member Jerry Hietpas to analyze the various things that could be posted and the ways in which the Web site could be more useful and report back to the board.
“I would think that a starting point would be this list that was handed to us by Karen Bradford,” Hietpas said. The list included the monthly financial report, the annual budget and the annual audit.
Currently, the MUD has 38 different documents outlining their policies. In an attempt to make those orders, resolutions, polices and rules easier to understand, the board voted unanimously to review each of them, five at a time, at subsequent board meetings until they have reviewed the entire set.
“One of my problems with maintaining manuals and directives is that updates don’t get in them. So here I’m dealing on something that’s pre World War II and everybody else is invading Iraq or something,” Rogers said.
Directors Hietpas and Andrews also asked the board if they could attend out of town utility district conferences in order to learn better what other districts are doing and report back.
The board unanimously approved them to go to one conference each this month.