Also suggested: Allowing public to push recall elections
After several meetings to hammer out suggested City Charter changes, a committee presented seven recommendations to City Council intended to improve transparency and limit terms.
Also brought to the council’s attention: A request to allow voters to hold recall elections for members on the dais.
The Charter Review Commission after three months of sessions introduced the suggested amendments during the June 11 council meeting, with the hope to see them go before voters in the Nov. 3 general election.
The council now will consider each recommendation and decide by mid-August which ones will be on the ballot.
Charlie Zech of Denton Navarro Rodriguez Bernal Santee & Zech PC acted as the review commission’s legal counsel. He noted the seven amendments received the group’s unanimous approval.
“In today’s environment, finding a group of nine people who have different opinions and ideas about things to be kind to each other is a very unique situation to be in,” Zech said.
Officials said 57 suggestions originally were submitted, boiled down to 21 and then seven were finally approved, including:
• Filling a council vacancy at the next regular election rather than calling a special election when there is less than a year left on the term.
• Establishing a fourterm lifetime limit on combined service as mayor and/ or council member, applying only to full terms, not partial terms.
• Allowing every council member to place items on the agenda. Currently the mayor and city manager control agenda topics.
• Requiring matters previously discussed under a project designation or code name to have the company name revealed before the council takes final binding action.
• Requiring periodic charter reviews every 10 years.
• Clean up redundant language.
• Delete “constitutionally problematic” language.
In addition, a heavily debated topic submitted by commission Vice Chairman Gary Gola would have added a mechanism for a public petition to recall council members.
Gola’s suggestion failed by one vote, though a commission member later said he misunderstood the action and would have supported it, the council heard.
“The issue of recall is so fundamental to public trust and voter confidence that it warrants consideration,” Gola told council members.
He cited data from the Texas Municipal League showing 93% of Texas home-rule cities have recall provisions in their charters.
“Taylor is not being asked to considered (doing) something unusual or radical. We’re being asked to consider a tool that has become standard practice,” he said. “A recall provision is not about personalities. It is a safeguard that recognizes public office as a public trust.”
Gola asked the council to consider adding the power of recall as an eighth amendment on the ballot.
“ “The issue of recall is so fundamental to public trust and voter confidence that it warrants consideration.”
— Gary Gola, Charter Review Commission
