Council hears consultant on adjudicated-property sales; debate over occupational-license ordinance ends with items tabled

Bastrop — During public comment, Kimberly Minweather Calhoun of You Consulting Services told the City Council her firm handles adjudicated-property sales for more than 20 municipalities and can feature Bastrop’s adjudicated parcels on its website if the city provides a master list. She said her office had submitted more than $19,000 in sale proceeds to the city over the past four years and described the application process, minimum-bid calculation and title-search work her firm performs.

Calhoun said the assessor’s office often controls master lists of adjudicated properties but that, if the city provides its file, the firm will post and market the parcels and contact adjacent, eligible purchasers. Council members asked staff to produce the city’s adjudicated-property list so the firm and the city can coordinate notice and publication obligations.

Later the council debated Ordinance 26-4285, which would add violations of the city’s environmental/beautification ordinances as grounds for revoking an occupational license. City legal staff explained the change is intended to add enforcement options: under current practice, revocation authority is tied narrowly to state criminal statutes; adopting the change would allow the city to use license revocation as a civil enforcement tool for repeated property-maintenance violations.

Councilmembers and members of the public raised concerns about due process, notice and prior inconsistent administrative practice; the attorney explained the ordinance updates mirror recent state-level changes and formalize now-informal review steps previously requested of applicants. A roll-call vote was attempted but proceedings became confused; the council recessed and then voted to table items 5, 7 and 8 and to reconvene June 22 at 5:30 p.m.

Council directed staff and legal to refine the ordinance language, provide cited ordinance sections and to bring back engineer and code-enforcement reports so the council can review enforcement options and due-process steps before final action.