Bandera City Council opened their first 2025 meeting with several resolutions, including an employee policy for vacation payout, a social media policy, an employee compensation adjustment policy and an approval for the Economic Development Board’s (EDC) expenditure of 60k for Cowboy Christmas.
All city council members apart from Tony Battle were present.
City Treasurer Allyson Wright presented the quarterly investment report, noting that the city’s accounts typically take a hit from October through December due to yearly subscription payments. Following the report, the council approved Mayor Denise Griffin as an authorized check signer for the city.
City Administrator Stan Farmer introduced a vacation payout policy for all city employees, crafted with specific consideration for the Marshal’s Office. The policy would cap accrued vacation hours at 240 and remind employees to use their time. Deputies at the Marshal’s Office, however, would have the option for vacation buyouts due to understaffing.
Councilmember Debbie Breen asked if the Marshal’s office could be a separate policy from the rest of the city employees, but Farmer said legal counsel advised that the policy must apply uniformly. Breen expressed budgetary concerns, but City Secretary Jill Shelton clarified that vacation buyouts would require employees to forgo vacation for two years, a rare occurrence.
Councilmember Lynn Palmer asked if the policy included a minimum amount of time for an employee to request vacation, to which Farmer stated that that would be up to the employee’s supervisor.
“I just want to make sure we don’t have two employees off at the same time,” Palmer said.
Farmer replied that it would be up to the supervisor’s discretion if that occurred. The motion passed unanimously.
Social Media Policy
Wright also proposed a social media policy to address “slanderous posts” on city-managed Facebook pages, including the Bandera City Marshal’s Office and City of Bandera pages.
The policy would allow a designated city employee to remove comments that contained profanity, pornographic material, harassing statements, threats, support or opposition for a political campaign, candidate or measure, or advertisements.
“Everything on our Facebook pages is public record,” Wright said. “If someone is cussing, we can’t remove it currently.” The policy would enable the city to do so.
“I went back quite aways on our Facebook pages, and I didn’t see anything that came close to meeting these criteria,” Breen stated.
Councilmember Brett Hicks mentioned there was “a lot of slander and language against an individual person” on the Marshal’s page, but maintained that everyone should have freedom of speech, “respectfully.”
Hicks referenced that Facebook has their own policy against such comments, and that it would make sense for the city to adopt one of their own.
“I want to be really careful with this,” Breen said, “People have a right to opinions, and I don’t want to cut off that feedback. But I understand that it should be done in a respectful way.”
“We need to be able to cover ourselves as a city,” Griffin said. “But if it’s someone saying they don’t like someone, we wouldn’t remove it. There’s a line there.”
Wright noted that the social media policy was recommended by the city attorneys and that it did not cross any legal boundaries.
“Some pretty horrible things were posted on our page that named specific people, and that’s not appropriate,” Wright went on to say.
The motion passed unanimously, with the agreement that the policy would be posted on all social media pages to keep Bandera’s citizens informed. Admins for the pages include Allyson Wright, Deputy Marshal Gilbert Ramirez and City Specialist Susan Hutcherson.
The procedure entails sending the questionable post to Farmer for review before removing the post, with the post being saved on the main drive to keep for public record.
Stan Farmer presentes the employee compensation motion. BULLETIN PHOTOS/ Veronica Rector
“I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE WE DON’T HAVE TWO EMPLOYEES OFF AT THE SAME TIME,”
- Councilmember Lynn Palmer This portion was not listed in the proposal but was requested to be added by Councilman Jeff Flowers, to which Farmer agreed, and Griffin requested that the amendment be made that same day. City Secretary Jill Shelton confirmed the additional amendment.
Employee Compensation Policy Postponed Farmer presented an employee compensation adjustment policy, which would allow up to a 2% raise for non-exempt employees annually, based on performance and education. The policy would limit the city administrator to granting raises to a maximum of four employees per fiscal year.
“Employee retention is paramount for a healthy organization,” Farmer said.
“When we spoke about this, you had mentioned that an employee who received a pay increase would not be eligible for another one the next year,” Griffin said, adding that she did not see that written in the policy. Farmer apologized and said that would be amended immediately.
“We can’t give a large raise to one person; we can only give a small raise to very few people,” Farmer said in regard to budgetary concerns Breen raised. “A two percent pay increase is not even a dollar. We are not talking enormous amounts of money.”
“A majority of our employees make a good salary, and I don’t think the benefits we give them – which are the Cadillac of benefits – I don’t see where they’re going to go anywhere and getting anything better than this” Breen stated.
“I wouldn’t put our healthcare in that Cadillac category, our retirement is,” Farmer said in response.
Farmer mentioned said because not all the money for pay increases was used from last year’s budget, it could be applied to cover some of the cost for this year’s pay increases.
When Breen asked for the exact amount left in the budget from the previous year, Farmer was unable to provide it. The motion was paused and set to be presented at a later date with more information.
Traffic Delineators Removed Councilmember Hicks then presented a proposal to remove the raised pavement delineators at the intersections of Main Street and Highway 1723, westbound and Eastbound.
Deputy Marshal Brandon Teer agreed, stating that the delineator caused “a hinderance to traffic flow.”
The motion passed unanimously.
Cowboy Christmas Expenditure Sparks Debate The smooth council meeting ran into a bit of tension when discussing the approval for EDC’s expenditure of $60,000 for Cowboy Christmas. Confusion about which resolution should be approved – the EDC’s or the city’s, which EDC president DeAnna McCabe stated were coded differently based on the EDC’s attorney’s review – left the question on which was the appropriate process.
“These are EDC funds, so we should be approving EDC’s resolution,” McCabe said. “Should we bring it to the council after the EDC’s public hearing? That’s what we have done in the past.”
Griffin seemed to agree, stating, “This is their project, their dollars, their resolution, I don’t understand why ours is different.”
McCabe went on to say that she had emailed Shelton a month ago about the discrepancy but had yet to receive a response.
“Our attorney has stated many times that they do not represent the EDC, nor do the EDC attorneys represent the city,” Shelton said.
When Breen asked why Shelton had not responded to McCabe’s email, she said she wasn’t aware that McCabe had sent her an email. When McCabe said she had, Shelton said that they were not there to discuss this matter.
“No, but it’s just common courtesy.” Breen said.
Flowers expressed his concern that while the tandem partnership with the EDC had been started in good faith, things had gotten “muddy” along the way.
Expenditures of EDC projects that exceed $5,000 are required to go through the council, but Flowers mentioned that they have not been formally presented with the funds towards a given project.
The motion passed unanimously, with the acknowledgement that the EDC would present their next approved resolution to the city at the following meeting.
License Plate Cameras Proposed The council also discussed a proposal from Flock Safety to install four cameras at Bandera’s entrances and exits to scan license plates. The cameras would notify the Marshal’s Office of flagged vehicles, including those tied to Amber Alerts. Each camera would cost $3,000 annually, with maintenance covered by the company except in cases of vandalism.
Deputy Marshal Teer supported the proposal, noting that technological upgrades had significantly improved the department’s efficiency. The discussion was tabled for further consideration.
City Oversight of EDC Checks Requested Breen then presented her motion to discuss the signing of EDC checks, stating that the EDC was requesting that a city official would co-sign a check along with two EDC officials in order to keep all funds transparent and recorded.
The request, Shelton noted, was not in the bylaws, meaning that the city did not legally have to co-sign for the checks.
“Is there a reason why the city does not want to sign the checks other than they don’t have proof that they have to?” McCabe asked.
“I don’t think anyone is disputing that,” Palmer said. “I remember when the city used to sign for the checks, and that’s why I was asking if there was a policy in place.”
Palmer requested that a policy be made to require a city official to sign off on all EDC checks, to which Breen agreed. McCabe stressed the importance of this policy, referencing a time when the process was no longer required, and the documentation of funds was “chaotic.”
“I feel better as an EDC board member to have that [the city’s] oversight,” McCabe said.
Flowers agreed, stating that the issue should not be a point of contention, after a tense back and forth between Palmer, Shelton, and McCabe.
The council requested that the EDC bylaws be rewritten to include the request for a required city official signature, with Griffin noting that while the EDC policy was written to request it, the bylaws trump policy.
Parking Lot Discussion Delayed The council finished with the discussion on the Methodist church parking lot, though the documentation needed to discuss the matter had not been provided by the representative of the parking lot, leaving the matter still opened for another date.
Mayor Griffin discusses EDC policies BULLETIN PHOTOS/ Veronica Rector
