Last night, City Council parsed through more than a dozen amendments proposed by the charter review commission, an appointed body that met 12 times throughout the spring and early summer to suggest changes to the city’s charter.
City Council will take up the second half of the 26 recommended amendments at its June 20 meeting.
Here are a few of the proposed changes to the city’s charter:
Removal of council members
One proposed amendment would allow five council members to vote to remove a council member for a “substantial” violation of the city’s charter. The proposal did not receive support from any council members.
Mayor John Thomaides said he felt the proposal opened the possibility that council could overturn the will of the voters, and Council Member Lisa Prewitt said there could be a series of “little coups” if it were to be approved.
“I think for council members to overturn an election through a procedural process without due process would be very, very concerning to me,” Thomaides said.
Council members agreed to leave that item off the November ballot.
Removing a city manager
Currently, four City Council members must vote to fire a city manager. The charter commission recommended that number be changed to five council members in order to ensure more continuity in the city manager position, which is responsible for overseeing the city’s 700 employees and acting as the CEO of the city as council members said.
Since 2002, the city has had nine city managers and interim city managers, including current interim manager Charles Daniels. Current assistant city managers Collette Jamison and Steve Parker both held brief tenures as the city's interim city manager before Daniels was hired.
Thomaides said removal of a city manager typically costs a quarter-million dollars after factoring severance pay and costs of recruiting and hiring a replacement. The change from four votes to five could provide more continuity for the position.
Charter Review Commission Chairman Paul Mayhew said the commission considered the city’s recent history with city managers while discussing the proposed amendment.
“We thought it was pretty important to be able to provide a stronger support for city managers,” he said.
Fair campaign practices oath
Currently, residents who are filing to run for public office are not required to abide by fair campaign practices under the city charter. The charter review commission recommended requiring all candidates to take an oath of fair campaign practices provided in section 258.004 of the Texas Election Code.
Council members disagreed on whether candidates filing for office should be required to sign a document committing themselves to fair campaign practices or take a verbal an oath in front of City Council.
Council Member Prewitt said she felt that a verbal oath was a higher level of commitment than signing a document.
“I want every citizen in our community to feel safe running for office, and I think this puts it at a little bit higher level of taking an oath to ensure that we run clean elections in the city of San Marcos,” Council Member Lisa Prewitt said.
The current recommendation is to require candidates to sign a notarized document committing themselves to fair campaign practices.
Among the topics to be discussed at the next meeting are issues related to nepotism and financial disclosures by city officials.
