The Alba City Council meeting started off with council members arguing over item 4, the consent agenda.

Agenda item 4 was the first item with action. While the council was being held to the traditional Robert’s Rules of Order, attorney Leigh Thompson said that they “have not traditionally followed them.” This caused some disagreement between council members. Mayor Paul Kelbe asked for a motion and a second to discuss the consent agenda; the motion didn’t receive a second, so died on the floor. However, Kelbe tried again a second time, asking for another motion and a second to discuss. When the motion still didn’t receive a second, the consent agenda died again and was moved until February’s meeting. However, Kelbe opened the consent agenda for a third time to a motion and a     second at the end of the meeting, between items 12 and 13, when it was passed, discussed, and ultimately approved.

The Alba City Council also placed City Attorney Leigh Thompson on a 90-day probation for an alleged lack of responsiveness. 

“This has been going on for quite a while now; over two years,” said council member Robert Kraemer. “We get a response maybe (after) 3-4, or no response, 3-4 days. And it’s just not right.”

Thompson said it was never her intent to not respond. 

The council also agreed to conduct a complete audit/investigation of the city Amazon account. According to council members, the Amazon account used to purchase city items is registered under the city email, but is actually a personal account owned by City Secretary Lindy McCarty. Some personal items were ordered, and some city items. The city has been paying Amazon Prime dues since the account’s beginning in 2023, and has paid sales tax on any items ordered, since it is not a business account. Notifications of purchase and shipping for personal items connected with the account were also sent through the city email. Council member Tammy Kirkpatrick said that this is a violation of city personnel policy, which she said states that city e-mail accounts are not for personal use.

The official motion by Kirkpatrick was to have the city “conduct a complete audit of the Amazon account, to include all purchases, compare those to the bank statements; I believe disciplinary action should be taken against the employee who used our personal account, used the city’s email for a personal account, and then got the city to pay Amazon dues.” An independent auditor will conduct the audit, and the audit will be from 2023 to present. The approval of the motion was unanimous.

There was also a discussion regarding public information requests, specifically as it related to a request regarding a viewing of the city’s Amazon invoices. Citizen Amanda Bohannan says she requested more pages than she received from Mayor Paul Kelbe, and was overcharged for them the Texas Municipal League guidance on maximum fees. The city will look into these concerns and discuss with Bohannan. Bohannan also requested that the city put official procedures in place for public information requests since, as Kelbe noted, “there is no process” in place currently. It was approved.

The council also approved all Alba EDC officers, and voted to review all city-wide purchasing accounts to ensure that they are all using the city’s tax-exempt status. 

Assistant City Secretary Jenna Trussell said that they have had eight applicants for the City Secretary position. She will bring in her recommendation in February. Kelbe announced that adding Police Chief Juan Ramirez’ recently-approved comp time to the city budget puts the budget at a negative $12,964. Kelbe said also adding a full-time water/sewer operator, which was approved in November, would put the budget at a negative $96,800.