The Lakeway Municipal Utility District board reinstated General Manager Richard Eason on Jan. 13, but board President Tom Rogers ordered Eason to no longer communicate with the public or media.

Rogers placed Eason on administrative leave Dec. 17, 2009, for allegedly releasing confidential information to the Lake Travis View.
After meeting with Eason and Finance-Administration Manager Margaret Cathey in closed session, the board held its vote.
“Richard, you may resume your position as general manager. I would like to emphasize — and this came up in the [closed session] also — that in dealings with the public and the press, it’s me. The buck stops here,” Rogers said.
“I understand,” Eason replied, later clarifying that he would still be able to communicate technical information to the press.
The board voted, 3-1, to continue Eason’s employment. Trustee Jerry Hietpas voted against the reinstatement, and trustee Kay Andrews abstained from voting because of her ongoing lawsuit with Eason regarding his charges of defamation against her.
In a Dec. 24, 2009, article in the Lake Travis View, Eason said the information he released came from an external source: new Community Advisory Committee co-chair Cole Rowland, a former Lakeway mayor.
Eason said he simply cut and pasted Rowland’s e-mail word-for-word in an e-mail to the 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.
After the board voted to reinstate Eason, Rowland announced the two Community Advisory Committee members whom he and co-chair Keith Williams recommended for board approval. Lakeway City Council appointed Tom Brewer to serve as the fifth CAC member. Brewer is a member of the city’s Board of Ethics.
Of five applicants who included former Lakeway Mayor Steve Swan, engineer and firefighter/EMT Ramzi Deeb and retired teacher Lois Willis, Rowland and Williams picked architect Chad Pierce and Nathan Miller, Lakeway Resort & Spa director of facilities and technology, to nominate to the committee.
“Any of the four would have been a well-qualified member of the committee,” Rowland said. “They all were interested and they all would have been successful members, I’m sure.”
Pierce is an architect with Seaux-Pierce Architecture, which LMUD has contracted to design its W-3 Office Building, an environmentally-friendly water treatment operations office.
Although Miller lives in Dripping Springs, the committee co-chairs considered him to be an in-district member based upon the resort’s location within the district.
“I think you’ve got a good selection, and also having a representative from the [resort], the [resort] is our largest customer, so I think that is an important asset, too,” Rogers said.
The board voted, 4-1, to approve Pierce and Miller as CAC members with Andrews voting against the appointments.
To start off the meeting, LMUD customer Karen Bradford questioned the district’s $96,000 contract with public relations firm Elizabeth Christian & Associates that she said also includes a 6 percent charge for office expenses and additional out-of-pocket expenses.
“The MUD is not a competitive business; it is a monopoly, and therefore, in my opinion, there was never a need for a PR firm or any other firm to incur this image,” Bradford stated.
She said Elizabeth Christian & Associates does not itemize its monthly flat fee.
“In my opinion, this is not an acceptable way of doing business. I feel the customers who are paying these bills have a right to know what we are getting for our money,” she said. “We deserve itemized statements.”
She said the firm serves a small minority of interests and not the customers as a whole.
“I feel customers are essentially getting nothing for their money. It is my opinion that the majority of work performed by EC&A is for two people: one person on the board and the other person is a staff member,” she stated.
She explained her belief that board and staff members were capable of writing letters to the editor and press releases without a PR firm’s assistance.
“You don’t need someone to put a spin on everything, and frankly neither do the customers,” Bradford said.
On the day of the board meeting, former Lakeway City Council member Karl Ansbach and Hietpas filed for LMUD board positions in the May 8 election. Both Rogers’ and Hietpas’ seats will expire. The last day to file for a board position is March 8.