Item 3 - Preliminary Report of City Attorney Working Group — original pdf
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To: Commissioners, 2024 Charter Review Commission (“2024 CRC”) From: City Attorney Working Group (the “Working Group”) (Alex Garcia, Brian McGiverin and Jessica Palvino) Subject: Preliminary Report Summary and Recommendation: Building on the work of and recommendation from the 2018 Charter Review Commission (see Attachment A), the City Attorney Working Group conducted additional research and interviewed a subject matter expert regarding whether the 2024 CRC should recommend amendments to Article V, Section 6 of the City of Austin’s Charter, which provides that the city manager shall appoint the city attorney. Upon concluding its work, the Working Group unanimously supports amending Article V, Section 6 and recommends a two‐pronged approach: (1) The city attorney shall be nominated by the city manager and confirmed by the council, and shall serve until removed by the joint action of both council and manager; and (2) One attorney within the office of the city attorney shall be appointed as “legislative counsel” to the city council, during which time appropriate ethical walls will be in place to protect the attorney‐client privilege. Resources: In reaching this recommendation, the Working Group relied heavily on the report from the 2018 Charter Review Commission (see Attachment A). The Working Group confirmed that Texas Home Rule Charters, Second Edition (2010), published by the Texas Municipal League, has not been updated since its last publishing. Additionally, the Working Group studied the National Civic League Model City Charter provisions relating to the appointment of the city attorney (see Attachment B), along with the associated commentary, and spoke with the author about the drafting of Section 4.03. The Working Group met three times to discuss its proposed recommendation and considered various written resources, including those included as Attachment C. Attachment 1 Attachment 2 Attachment 3