Kyle amends budget more than $100,000 for council insurance

KYLE — At the April 2 Kyle City Council meeting, council voted to approve an item on second and final reading to give council members access to the health insurance program at the city's expense. Previously, at the March 19 meeting, assistant city manager Jesse Elizondo brought forth the item, which proposed to amend the fiscal year 2023-24 budget to give council members access to the health insurance program on the same terms as full-time city employees. Elizondo noted that a study on council compensation and reimbursement for expenses was previously requested by council. Elizondo explained that, originally, Ordinance 1043 was established in May 2019 and allowed council members to participate in the city’s health insurance “provided that the monthly salary set forth herein will be reduced by the amount of the monthly health insurance premium.” During this meeting, council member Miguel Zuniga asked, “whether this is the appropriate forum to discuss the council member compensation.” “It’s my opinion, and only my opinion, that I should not be the decision maker on my council compensation, as I believe the charter has established an avenue for that,” he continued. Council members Lauralee Harris, Bear Heiser, Robert Rizo and Mayor Travis Mitchell all made claims to advocate for the approval. Ultimately, the item passed 4-3 on the first reading, with council members Daniela Parsley, Michael Tobias and Zuniga dissenting. “I still have not heard [an answer to] my original question: Why are we bypassing the city charter?” asked Tobias at the final reading, where the item again passed 4-3, with the members voting the same as the previous meeting. Section 3.09 in the city charter, listed as “compensation,” states the following: “Changes to council salary shall only be considered once every three years and shall be considered only after the recommendation is made by a council-approved committee.” The last time there was a change to council salary, which has been used interchangeably with compensation in the charter, was in 2022, with ordinance 1231, which reads that a citizens committee was formed to examine and make recommendations to the city council budget. Ultimately, it was determined and approved to maintain the “current level of monthly compensation for mayor and council,” along with the addition of a $500 monthly expense stipend. The monthly compensation maintained was from the previously mentioned Ordinance 1043 three years prior, listing a salary of $1,000 per month for council members and $1,300 per month for the mayor. According to documents obtained by the Hays Free Press , for Medical EPO Premier, which is the highest insurance option, the total rate for a council member would be $749.84, which would be entirely covered by the city. Additional beneficiary costs would be as follows: Council member and spouse • Council member pays $270.65 per month • City contributes $1,252.47 per month • Total rate: $1,523,12 Council member and child(ren) • Council member pays $192.50 per month • City contributes $1,107.33 per month • Total rate: $1,299.83 Council member and family • Council member pays $424.76 per month • City contributes $1,538.67 per month • Total rate: $1,963.43 Documents listed for the April 2 meeting cite chapter 172 of the Texas Local Government Code as the reasoning for the ordinance, which authorizes municipalities to provide the same health insurance coverage to city council members as full-time employees. On Dec. 13, 2003, Gov. Greg Abbott, who at the time was the state’s attorney general, cited this chapter in Opinion No. GA-0130, but also noted that “Home-rule cities generally control the compensation of their officers and employees … ‘Compensation’ includes benefits, such as insurance, provided to officers and employees.” He later continued to state that “If the city charter is constructed to limit council members compensation to the stated amounts, the city may not provide additional compensation in the form of health insurance coverage” and “If the charter sets the maximum compensation for city council members, the city may not provide additional compensation to city council members absent an amendment to the charter.” A similar case was held against the city of Corpus Christi, which argued that an ordinance that allowed council members health insurance violated the city charter, which explicitly stated an amount of salary. Although the city charter does not state a specific amount of compensation, the charter does limit how the council members’ compensation is determined: via a compensation committee which occurs every three years. Because the last time a committee convened was in 2022, the only time, according to the charter, the city would be able to make changes would be at the next meeting occurring in 2025, which Zuniga mentioned at the March 19 meeting: “I also ask that we, as council members, follow the procedural rules in the charter and wait for a full compensation committee in 2025 to evaluate this.” Section 3.09, “Compensation,” of the city charter also states that “council is prohibited from amending a budget to adjust council salary.” Both the ordinance located in agenda documents and the item documents presented to council stated that council would be amending the current budget to allow the city to pay for its health insurance in a sum “not to exceed $133,078.68.” The ordinance to amend the budget reads “due to the commitment of time required by service on the governing body of the city, it is reasonable to provide access to the health insurance program to the mayor and city council members.” According to the documents, the limitations to council salary and the process to amend it does not apply to health insurance because the city classifies it as a separate benefit. By contrast, in Opinion No. GA-0449, Abbott states that “'Compensation’ has been defined as ‘[r]emuneration and other benefits received in return for services rendered.” In response to a direct request for clarification on the legal aspects from the city attorney on April 4, director of communications Rachel Sonnier gave the following statement: “Currently, state law authorizes municipalities to provide members of the governing body with access to health insurance on the same terms as employees of the municipality. City council amending the ordinance and budget does not violate state law or the city charter.” After highlighting a portion of the charter, she then responded that health insurance is not considered salary by law. The Hays Free Press again requested the legal basis to which she was referring and did not receive an answer as of the time of publication.