Lakeway Municipal Utility District Board President Tom Rogers placed General Manager Richard Eason on administrative leave Dec. 17 for allegedly releasing confidential information.

Rogers said in a statement that district board members will vote on Eason’s employment at the district’s board meeting Jan. 13, 2010. The board had voted to renew Eason’s contract during its Dec. 9 meeting, but the document was not signed.
“Lakeway Mayor Dave DeOme had shared a confidential situation with me that I had to relate to Eason for business purposes. I expected Eason’s utmost discretion, but, unfortunately, Eason betrayed the confidence,” Rogers said. “We have no choice but to suspend Eason immediately. His actions are completely inexcusable.”
According to the district’s Personnel Policy Manual, “actions that may result in disciplinary steps include … unauthorized use of official information or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information … and failure to maintain the confidentiality of the district or its customers.”
Eason said Rogers’ decision stunned him.
“I was shocked and appalled,” Eason said. “After 17 years with the district and a good relationship with Tom, it’s very surprising to me that he would try to end our relationship on this note. I’m real sorry it’s gotten to this point.”
The general manager said the information he released came from an external source. Eason said he relayed information he received from new Community Advisory Committee co-chair Cole Rowland, a former Lakeway mayor.
“Richard: I understand that [CAC applicant] Steve Swan asked the mayor to be appointed the city’s representative on the advisory committee and the mayor refused,” Eason reported that Rowland wrote him.
DeOme said Swan did not approach him to be the city’s appointee to the LMUD committee until after the board’s Dec. 9 vote. Leading up to that meeting, DeOme had sought a member of the city’s Board of Ethics to serve on the Community Advisory Committee and contacted board President Dick Drury about finding a suitable candidate. The city board nominated Tom Brewer of Lakeway as a candidate whom City Council members approved at their Dec. 21 regular meeting.
DeOme said he didn’t consider Swan because he already was serving as chairman of the city’s charter review committee.
“It’s a big job to do this charter review,” DeOme said. From the beginning, “I wanted someone from our ethics committee.”
Swan confirmed that he met with DeOme the afternoon after the district’s Dec. 9 meeting and discussed the selection process but there was no resolution.
He said he also spoke with Rowland about the matter.
“I talked with Cole, and he said it was just a rumor he picked up,” Swan said.
Eason said he simply cut and pasted Rowland’s e-mail word-for-word in an e-mail to the Lake Travis View. He said Rogers had shared the same information with him, but that Rogers did not indicate it was sensitive material.
“Tom gave me that information as well. He felt that that had been told to me in confidence. He did not tell me that what he shared was confidential. I presumed it was common knowledge,” he said.
Eason, who was hired Feb. 1, 1993, has faced several challenges in recent months including an attempted takeover of operations by the City of Lakeway after the city took issue with the district’s installation of a water tank on Lohmans Crossing earlier this year. He also filed a lawsuit Aug. 27 against board member Kay Andrews alleging she defamed his character.
Earlier this month, former Lakeway mayor Swan called Eason’s statements about co-chair appointments to the district’s Community Advisory Committee into question.
Swan e-mailed board members saying he felt they had been given incorrect information about the formation of the new committee. He said he had applied to be a committee member but no one from the district had contacted him to determine his interest in serving as a co-chair.
“I have been under the impression that you board members received truthful information from the MUD staff, and that most non-administrative matters including decisions about appointing all committee members, was under the purview of the board of directors,” Swan wrote. “If this supposition is even partially correct, clearly you have all been manipulated by your general manager, and you should correct this situation.”
Eason said that he provided all information to the board before they voted on the co-chairs.
“I don’t concur with that [e-mail]. I presented all the applicants to the board, and the board could have chosen any of them. It was ultimately the board’s decision,” he said.
When he presented the concept of a Community Advisory Committee modeled on Lower Colorado River Authority regional councils to the board for possible implementation, Eason said he never imagined that the idea would be controversial.
“My experience with these committees and the LCRA has been very positive. It never occurred to me that the board would not be unanimous as a whole. Clearly it has divided the board, but it seems now that the majority of the board is in favor of this,” he said. “I still think that this committee can have a very positive role in its relationship with the district and its customers as well as the city.”
As the utility district and city work to mend fences through the addition of a city-designated CAC member, the general manager said he hoped the board would take everything into consideration at its next meeting.
“It seems like I ought to have a hearing, so everybody understands what transpired. I certainly will stand by the board’s decision. I always have and I always will,” Eason said. “I do report to Tom and have for many, many years. I’m certainly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and do whatever it is he wants me to do.”
District bylaws state the general manager’s position is under the board president’s general supervision. Per the LMUD Personnel Policy Manual, the district may “take the necessary means to achieve the proper ends under emergency situations; and to hire, promote, transfer and assign employees as well as to suspend, demote, discharge or take disciplinary action against such employees.”
“All [LMUD] employees are employed at-will and may, at any time during their employment, be terminated with or without notice, for any reason or no reason,” the manual states.