Bastrop City Council Member Kay McAnally announced during a council meeting Tuesday night that she will resign before the end of her term, saying she serves on a council that often skirts ethics rules, state laws and the city charter.

"Every single day I worry not only if what is going on the in the city is ethical, but if it is actually legal," McAnally said, adding that she "can’t do this any more."

McAnally said she will remain in her seat until someone is elected to replace her, but that her resignation will take effect Nov. 5 to save the city the cost of an additional election.

The city charter states that a council vacancy will be filled by an election to be called within 120 days of the vacancy. With a November resignation, the city could call for an election to fill McAnally’s seat in March, which could coincide with the calling of the May election the city would normally have.

McAnally’s term on the council is scheduled to end in May.

The brunt of McAnally’s ethics violations allegations were targeted at Bastrop Mayor Ken Kesselus, who she said "does not take responsibility for the many dysfunctional things that council has done under his leadership."

"He and I have never really seen eye to eye on ethics, but according to him things that he has done or … said that appear to be irregular, have just been misconstrued or misrepresented or misunderstood by those of us who have questioned him," McAnally said. "He must be the most misunderstood man in Bastrop history."

Kesselus, who allowed McAnally to voice her displeasure with the council during the meeting Tuesday night, said he would respond to her allegations at the next council meeting.

"The demeaning way that she spoke is something I let her do because I kind of sensed where she was going and also most of it was directed at me, and I think I’m certainly willing to hear her say that," Kesselus said after McAnally read her speech from the dais. "I will make a response at the next meeting to everything that she said that affected me and give the other council members the opportunity to do the same thing."

Kesselus told the Bastrop Advertiser Wednesday, "Most everything that she alleged is just old news." He said the allegations lacked substance and sounded much like the letter Linda Curtis, director of Independent Texans, a political action committee, wrote to seek charter amendments lowering petition requirements for recalls, referendums and initiatives.

"I’m disappointed that (McAnally) is so negative toward me," he said. :I do not think I have done anything to her. I’ve treated her fairly."

McAnally said she filed ethics complaints against council members Deborah Jones and Gary Schiff, though she would not comment on the reason for the complaints. McAnally told the Advertiser she could not comment on the specifics of the ethics complaints as they are not yet public.

Jones and Schiff told the Advertiser they were unaware McAnally filed an ethics complaint against them and didn’t know what the cause for the complaint could be. Jones said she’s done nothing wrong and that it was unfair for a council member to sling allegations of wrongdoing without providing proof of misconduct.

McAnally ran through a laundry list of potential ethics violations Kesselus has been involved in, including the attempted appointment of his then-boss’ wife to a city commission last year. Kesselus’ boss at the time also sought a position on the Bastrop Economic Development Corporation but pulled his application before Kesselus could make the appointment.

The city’s ethics commission later found elected officials could not appoint their boss or boss’ spouse to city commissions, after the city attorney requested an opinion.

McAnally accused Kesselus of leading the charge to pressure former City Manager Mike Talbot to resign and of developing a campaign against then-City Attorney J.C. Brown, resulting in her resignation.

Talbot resigned June 15, saying some council members infiltrated the day-to-day administration of the city, going against the city charter’s council-manager form of government.

Brown resigned in July.

McAnally said the council has also been warned by local attorneys and residents against possible violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act by taking votes on matters not on the agenda or discussing matters in executive session not on the agenda.

"I serve on a council, it seems, where bullying is the norm, where abusing and admonishing city staff on camera for political points is the order of the day," McAnally said. "I believe I serve on a council where there have been attempts to use public funding to serve private interests or those of friends or clients."

On Sept. 19, Schiff requested funding from the Bastrop Economic Development Corporation to build water and wastewater lines to an office space project he is developing along Texas 71, as well as to potential future developments nearby.

The corporation’s board was scheduled to deliberate Schiff’s request on the same night the corporation was honoring him for serving on its board for 17 years. Schiff stepped off the board in August, after Kesselus appointed business owner Kevin Plunkett to his seat.

The board tabled Schiff’s request to allow staff more time to review and evaluate the project. But Schiff pulled his funding request two days after it became public, saying he "didn’t want people to feel like I was taking advantage of the city."

McAnally said the only way to honestly serve the citizens who elected her seven-and-a-half years ago was by tendering her resignation and telling everyone what she believed to be true.

"I want us to get back to doing the city’s business and not having these bitter personal attacks from anybody, anywhere," Kesselus said. "We have a lot of things on our agenda and we have to work hard to get those done."