Joe Hamilton

More than 70 people packed the Bulverde City Council chamber Tuesday after the city published an agenda stating council would go into closed executive session to “deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of the police chief.”

Mayor Ray Jeffrey said the wording on the agenda was necessary to comply with state guidelines and that council simply intended to evaluate Police Chief Joe Hamilton’s performance.

But former Mayor Sarah Stevick, who attended the meeting, said council’s action regarding the agenda was confusing.

“First of all, using the word ‘dismissal’ in the published agenda misled the public,” she said.

Jeffrey said during the meeting that council would not discuss, or take any action following the executive session.

However, Stevick said council debated whether to allow people in the audience to talk about the police chief.

“Council declined to discuss it in open session,” she said.

In explaining why the item was on the agenda, Jeffrey said the council would, from time to time, review the performance of city employees. He said that meeting in executive session to discuss Hamilton’s job was merely a performance review.

However, Stevick said she was told last week that council intended to ask Hamilton to resign.

“Several people told me they heard Chief Hamilton had been asked to resign with 90 days severance pay, and if he didn’t, they were going to dismiss him immediately,” she said.

Council spent more than an hour in closed executive session before Hamilton was summoned to the meeting. Jeffery reconvened the council around 30 minutes later and said no action would be taken.

“My goal is to be responsive to the directives of the mayor, City Council and city administrator and to follow their leadership,” said Hamilton after the meeting. “I look forward to doing the very best job I can for the city. I invite input from the community as well.”

Hamilton, a retired Depart-ment of Public Safety officer, took the position of police chief in January 2007 after former Police Chief Royce Goodson resigned.

“I hired Chief Hamilton,” Stevick said. “It’s the city manager’s job to evaluate the performance of the police chief, not the council’s job. Although council has the authority to hire and fire the police chief, the police chief reports directly to the city administrator, so I think the City Council was overstepping the city administrator’s job if they actually were evaluating the chief’s performance.”