The frankly ugly 1970s City Hall at Bartlett TX is located at 140 W Clark Street just across the railroad tracks west of downtown Bartlett.
From the city's website: (
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"Welcome to the City's new webpage! We are in the process of putting all our required info as well as lot's of great information. Please be patient as we get all this updated for you.
The Bartlett Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, stands as a cohesive group of early 1900s commercial buildings, and reflects the town's prosperity achieved during the early 20th century as a cotton shipping center in central Texas.
Nearly 90 percent of the buildings in the district are historically significant. Many of the buildings are in fair condition and few have been significantly altered. The main street is remarkably intact and includes the core of the city’s past and present commercial activities. The City of Bartlett is split between two counties (Bell and Williamson), has an approximate population of 1600, and is known as "The best little town in Texas."
Behind this nondescript facade, however, much drama roils. See: (
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"Bartlett City Council meetings become battlegrounds
Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2015 4:00 am
BY DEBORAH MCKEON | TELEGRAM STAFF
BARTLETT — Bartlett City Hall became a battleground in a war of words with all five City Council members, Mayor Norris Ivy and residents firing verbal volleys during a special called meeting Tuesday.
Tension began to build early and increased after the mayor and Council members returned from a 40-minute executive session Tuesday night to consider appointing or confirming Sabrina Pope as the city secretary.
Laura Eckert was the city secretary who reportedly took a family medical leave of absence to care for her ailing parents, leaving the city staff short. Pope has been the interim city secretary.
Mayor pro tem Barbara Sandobal made a motion to appoint Pope only as interim city secretary, but no one seconded it and the motion died. Councilman Brett Springston made another motion to appoint Pope as city secretary, and Councilman Jesse Luna seconded it.
Ivy asked City Administrator Chris Hill if “the other issue could be resolved quickly” and Hill answered that he believed it could and Pope could be appointed once that situation was resolved.
Sandobal said Hill told her that Eckert had resigned, but Hill argued he never said that.
Springston moved to amend his motion to appoint Pope as city secretary once the issue about Eckert’s employment was resolved.
Luna seconded the motion, but the motion was defeated 3-2 when Sandobal, Ray Uson and Dean Roome voted against it.
The real battle began when the issue of a future RV park across the street from City Hall was discussed.
RV park debate
Ivy said he would let residents comment who had signed up to speak on that issue, but Roome made a motion to table the discussion. Ivy said no motion was called for and that he was going to let the four people speak on the issue.
The first speaker was Butch Lyon, who said he believed Ray Mitchell, the property owner, had good intentions but Mitchell also intended to sell the property. Lyon talked about the undesirable people that can move into an RV park and said that once Mitchell sold the property, it would be out of his control to keep it cleaned up.
Carol Gunter was next in line. She said she believed the majority of residents thought an RV park would undermine the town’s beauty and value, would be a haven for drug dealers and quickly become a deteriorating slum. Gunter said she was disappointed the city officials hadn’t already closed the issue and expressed her disgust with Sandobal for spending time with Mitchell at his property when she knew ordinances had been violated. A majority of the residents clapped their hands after Gunter read her written statement.
Sandobal responded angrily, saying no one had the right to tell her who to talk to or spend her time with. She accused Ivy of giving her a list of people she was to avoid, which he denied.
Sandobal also wanted to know what ordinances were broken.
Ivy answered her with periodic interruptions from Mitchell, saying Mitchell had no building permit, hadn’t requested the water be turned on and that no RV parks were allowed, according to city zoning ordinances.
“We talked about this issue before. Most of the Council was very vocal in their disapproval of an RV park or a zoning amendment. No action was taken. We got resident input and the opposition was loud,” Ivy said.
Mitchell is living in his RV and has water hooked up to it, both against city ordinances, Ivy said. The ordinance is that no one can live in an RV more than 10 days per quarter and it can’t hook up to city utilities, he added. Ivy said Mitchell was issued a cease-and-desist order, which he allegedly ignored.
At that moment Roome interjected a question about information he’d requested about Hill, to which Hill said he’d invoke the Whistleblower Act if Roome continued. Roome was shut down by Ivy, who came to Hill’s defense and accused Roome of retaliating against Hill.
Conflict in the city
A Wednesday email clarified Tuesday night’s heated exchanged between Roome, Hill and Ivy.
Roome sent an email to Hill after he reportedly went Sept. 18 to City Hall to look up some financial documents and to talk to Hill about the cease-and-desist letter issued to Mitchell. Roome said Pope told him Hill called in sick that day. Roome asked for copies of Hill’s attendance record for January through September, as well as other information.
Hill responded to Roome in another email, accusing Roome of harassing him since he became a Council member. Hill said the retaliation was because Hill didn’t support his campaign for office and blew the whistle on Mitchell’s violations.
“I am invoking the whistleblower protection as allowed to me by law. Should you continue to harass me or any other city employee or retaliate further, I will be forced to believe you are attempting to force my resignation thus asking for my resignation or termination will cause me to enforce the clause in my contract related to termination,” Hill said. “The information you seek below is readily known and available and any further attempt to cause my resignation will be considered by me to be a violation of the whistleblower act and requesting my termination.”
One agenda item for Wednesday’s executive session was discussion regarding the duties, responsibilities, employment and/or termination of employment of City Administrator Hill. However, Springston and Luna failed to arrive for the meeting by 7:15 p.m., leaving the Council without the required quorum of four for a special called meeting, so the meeting didn’t proceed.
Ivy said the only people vocal for the RV park were Sandobal, Roome and Mitchell. He asked for hands to be raised of those in opposition, and most of the residents at the Tuesday night meeting raised hands.
One individual yelled out that Sandobal should be reprimanded for her behavior, and from there the meeting further deteriorated.
Roome made a motion to recess until 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, which Sandobal quickly seconded. Ivy loudly said that he was running the meeting and would keep on running it.
Roome said he had a privileged motion on the floor that was seconded and had to be addressed by Ivy, and he asked Akers if that was correct. Akers said the motion took precedence.
Ivy tried to make a motion, but Roome reminded him that he was mayor and couldn’t make a motion. Roome said a vote had to be taken, which Ivy objected to, saying the rest of the agenda should be completed before recessing.
Akers reminded the Council that the remainder of the agenda would have to be finished within 24 hours, which meant it would have to be addressed in Wednesday night’s agenda during the three-hour time limit. That information indicated that a quorum would be needed to meet the following night.
Luna asked Akers if the Council members had the authority to dismiss a Council member. Akers said the Council had no authority to remove anyone and any request had to go through a district judge.
Sandobal, Roome and Uson voted to recess the meeting, while Luna and Brett Springston voted against it.
Ivy, Luna and Springston stayed behind to talk with each other after the meeting, while the other Council members dispersed.
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"City administrator, interim city secretary fired
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 10:42 pm
BY DEBORAH MCKEON | TELEGRAM STAFF
BARTLETT — The Bartlett City Council meeting became a war zone Monday night as three Council members cast the deciding votes that fired the city administrator and interim city secretary.
Those decisions were openly ridiculed and verbally attacked by the mayor, another Council member and a group of angry residents.
City Administrator Chris Hill and Interim City Secretary Sabrina Pope were fired after motions made, seconded and votes cast by Dean Roome, Barbara Sandobal and Ray Uson following an executive session that lasted almost two hours.
A divided Council, combined with opinions voiced by Mayor Norris Ivy, led to several fiery confrontations and outbursts by Ivy and residents. Several Bartlett Police officers and Chief Markus Holt were present.
Although several issues were hotly contested, what brought things to a boil was the executive session aftermath.
Some residents asked to voice their opinions prior to the executive session.
John Gunter said it looked as if several Council members were trying to get rid of the “three finest employees Bartlett ever had,” based on their honesty, efficiency and accuracy. “You need to give them a pat on the back instead of this malicious firing.”
Carol Gunter challenged those wanting to fire the employees to give “irrefutable proof of wrongdoing.”
When the Council reconvened, Roome made a motion to terminate Hill, seconded by Sandobal. Ivy reminded them that Hill asked to present his case in open session, so the motion was withdrawn.
Hill said he worked for less money in Bartlett so he could clean up previous wrongs and complete budgets and audits. Hill mentioned getting rid of city land lines, cellphones and pagers not in use. He said he helped refinance the city’s debt to a much lower rate and settled a lawsuit that was on the books for years.
Hill mentioned using a grant to fix the town hall roof before the grant expired. He said he got five new houses totaling $550,000 through the Home Grant Program, reduced the electric rate to match the state average and saved the city more than $2.1 million.
Ivy said the desire to fire Hill was lunacy.
“Maybe they need to look again at the oath of office they took. They’re doing it for their own power, not for what’s good for Bartlett,” Ivy said as he looked at the three members.
Councilman Brett Springston voiced his opinion. “We’re not throwing $80,000 away just because we want to. We represent Bartlett. If you’re going to do something like this, you’d better have something to go behind your statements,” Springston told Roome, Sandobal and Uson.
A special city account holds $80,000, the settlement package Hill negotiated in his contract as what he would be paid if he was terminated from Bartlett.
Voting to fire two city employees
City Attorney Zachariah Evans said Tuesday both Hill and Pope were at-will employees.
The vote to oust Hill was 3 to 2, with Jesse Luna and Springston voting against it.
Ivy at one point pounded his gavel on the table next to Sandobal’s arm to tell her to be quiet and pay attention.
“Pay attention closely to whose hands are up,” Ivy told the audience as the vote was taken. Pointedly looking at the three members, he loudly said, “Your time is coming.”
A large contingent of the audience, many of them Hill’s relatives, began yelling and making threatening comments as they prepared to leave.
Pope was terminated by the same vote results.
The next item was to discuss the duties, powers and responsibilities of the mayor.
“They want to limit my powers, somehow,” Ivy said.
Sandobal said the Council needs to know about money spent on contracts, hiring and other things before it’s spent.
Evans said tense atmospheres are something he said he’s seen many times before when employment issues come up because people are very passionate about their jobs and respond accordingly.
He said he believed some Council members were taking issue with how the meetings are conducted and procedural issues. Evans told the Council he could provide copies of other ordinances to consider adopting because the Council wasn’t currently following any set of rules.
Evans reminded Ivy of the correct procedure in regard to motions and voting several times during the meeting, mainly caused by the city’s lack of guidelines, he said Tuesday.
Evans asked the Council members to send him input about things they want to change.
“Just write down that Dean, Barbara and Ray want to take the mayor’s place,” Springston loudly told Evans.
When the time came to vote on City Secretary Laura Eckert’s job, Ivy said, “Their minds are already made up.”
However, Uson made a motion to table the issue, which was seconded by Sandobal. The vote was once again 3 to 2, with Luna and Springston opposed.
Threats reported
Uson said residents threatened him, Roome and Sandobal as they left the meeting. Uson reported the instances Tuesday to Holt so if anything happens, it will be already be on the record.
“If Ivy had been in control, that wouldn’t have happened. But he egged it on,” Uson said.
Holt didn’t return a phone call by press time Tuesday. Eckert called in sick Tuesday morning, and Ivy had no comment about the meeting."
Small-town politics -- YIKES