Bastrop City Council strips some duties from Mayor Lyle Nelson after ethics reprimand

BASTROP — The Bastrop City Council on Monday night limited and stripped some duties from Mayor Lyle Nelson during a packed meeting attended by both supporters and opponents of the mayor.

The move came after the city's ethics commission issued a letter of reprimand against the mayor on April 10 for interfering in an investigation involving a city contractor.

The council voted 4-1 on Monday to pull Nelson off any internal or external boards or committees, including the Bastrop Economic Development Commission and the Capital Area Council of Governments. In the same resolution, council members also approved barring Nelson from advocating for the city in the Legislature and to stop his participation in preparing the agenda for City Council meetings.

The resolution also makes it necessary for the mayor to have council approval for his expenses for business trips, conventions and other events. He also is now required to obtain council approval before speaking at any city functions or any city-sponsored events.

Nelson also is no longer allowed to sign and read proclamations at City Council meetings, according to another resolution the council passed unanimously. The resolutions that limit the mayor's duties can be reversed when a new City Council is elected.

"A public servant is expected to be honest, trustworthy and transparent in their actions," said Council Member Cynthia Meyer, who voted in support of the resolutions. "Lyle Nelson possesses none of these qualities."

Council Member Cheryl Lee was the only member to vote against the resolution that included stripping the mayor's membership on boards and commissions. "I am not fighting for the mayor," she said. "I am choosing in this moment to show grace and mercy in this situation."

Nelson said at the packed City Council meeting that he had not interfered in the investigation against a contractor for misuse of public funds. The council, he said, was trying to bully him into resigning. "I made a mistake of a personal and private nature," he said. Nelson said he had apologized to "friends and foes alike" and asked for forgiveness.

"I have decided tonight that I have no plans to resign as mayor of Bastrop," he said. "I have been beat up but not beat down."

More: Bastrop City Council files ethics complaint against mayor, says he interfered in inquiry

The council made its decision Monday after its members made a complaint in January saying Nelson refused to give officials eight and half months' worth of communications between him and Susan Smith, who is being investigated for misuse of public funds while she was the chief executive officer of Visit Bastrop. The marketing company promotes tourism and is funded by more than $1.5 million of the city's hotel occupancy tax.

The council approved the investigation in August after four Visit Bastrop employees complained to the city's human resources director, the city manager and a council member that Smith had misused public funds while pursuing an "inappropriate relationship with Lyle Nelson," the ethics complaint said.

During the investigation, a forensic audit of Visit Bastrop showed that from 2021 to 2023, approximately $70,000 in public funds from the city were spent on Visit Bastrop credit cards and approved by Smith without itemized receipts or other required documentation, the ethics complaint said.

More: 'You let us down'; Ethics panel reprimands Bastrop Mayor Nelson for inquiry interference

"Some amount of the misreported public funds have been identified to have been used in pursuit of a romantic relationship with Lyle Nelson while he was a city official," it said.

Nelson initially denied he had been involved with Smith until 232 pages of intimate text messages between them were discovered on her work iPad, the complaint said. He then admitted to the City Council "that there was a relationship that was sexual in nature and apologized to council for lying about the same," the complaint said.

The attorney hired by the city said in a report that there was no evidence that Nelson knew about the misuse of funds. Nelson said Monday that he had not misused any city money. He also said he had turned over to investigators all devices that he used for official city business, including his work cellphone, his iPad and his work computer.

Council Member Kevin Plunkett, who voted in favor of the resolutions, said that when a public information request had been made for Nelson's personal devices, including communications he had with other council members, Nelson said he had turned them all in. But Nelson did not do this, Plunkett said.

"He still has that information," said Plunkett. "He still has refused to provide it. I am all for forgiveness, but forgiveness has to come from fixing the problem that you created."

Council Member Jimmy Crouch, who also supported the resolutions, said Nelson did not offer an apology to the council until after "a stack of documents" (the text messages between Nelson and Smith) were placed in front of him and he could no longer deny that he had an intimate relationship with Smith. Crouch also said Nelson had chosen "to place himself above the city."

Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland said there is an ongoing criminal investigation involving Visit Bastrop funds but did not say who was conducting it. The Texas Rangers have said they were looking into allegations against Smith.

Visit Bastrop has since been able to provide receipts and justification for much of the $70,000 in public funds that the forensic audit showed Smith had spent on Visit Bastrop credit cards without the proper documentation, Kirkland said at Monday's meeting.

The public funds now under investigation for misuse are some of the items contained within the receipts for the $70,000 and some contained in other Visit Bastrop spending reported by staff, Kirkland said.

A few members of the public on Monday asked Nelson to resign. "I would like you to quietly fade away into the shadows and let us heal," said Barbara Caldwell, who also is a member of the city's ethics panel.

Joe Grady Tuck, an attorney who served two terms as the district attorney for the 216th Judicial District, said the mayor should resign and said Nelson was "an embarrassment to the city."

But other people at the meeting supported the mayor.

"What is the rush toward judgment without any proof of wrongdoing?" asked Bastrop resident Stewart Bridges. Another resident, Debbie Moore, said at least one of the resolutions "denigrated the mayor."

"The mayor has contended that he didn't do anything wrong," she said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bastrop Mayor Lyle Nelson stripped of some duties after reprimand