The gist
A breakdown of the 10 proposed amendments were presented and acknowledged by Frisco City Council members during a Dec. 3 meeting.
“On behalf of the committee, I just want to thank you very much for the opportunity to serve,” said Karen Cunningham, who chaired the 2024 Frisco City Charter Review Commission. “Believe it or not, we had a great time over the last several months reviewing and making recommendations for the charter.”
Some background
Frisco’s City Charter is a guiding document first adopted in 1987 that outlines the city’s form of government, powers of the city as well as various processes and rules for its leaders. The document requires the city to form a charter review commission to look for potential amendments every six years. The last time Frisco voters approved any changes was in 2019 after a charter review the year before.
There were 24 amendments approved in 2019, a list that included raising the mayor’s pay from $500 per month to $850 and raising council members’ pay from $350 per month to $700.
Diving deeper
Cunningham said increasing the mayor and council members’ pay again six years later was not something city leaders asked the commission to look into but something that commission members felt was important enough to include in discussions.
“The reason for this is we feel that truly, it's impossible to compensate you for your time,” Cunningham said. “That doesn't exist within our structure. That's not the intention of our governance model, but we also recognize that you are taking your time away from your own personal businesses, from jobs that you may be required to take your own PTO time for, you know, for city work and obligations.”
Increased compensation means someone who is not financially well-off could still serve on council, Cunningham said. If approved, a council member would receive $1,200 per month and the mayor would receive $1,500 per month.
“While this would not compensate anyone for a full time position, we do still think that it is beneficial to recognize the time and the effort that each council member puts into their service to the city,” she said.
The amendment includes a note requiring the compensation be adjusted by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) going forward to take inflation into account. This ensures that future compensation amendments will not be necessary as it will change automatically, Cunningham said.
Other proposed revisions including one adding a section allowing the city to publish public notices on platforms besides one of the newspapers servicing the city will “future proof” the charter in the chance state law changes to allow it in the future, Cunningham said.
What comes next
Residents can find a draft of the charter with all of the proposed amendments and what would change here.
City officials have until a Feb. 4, 2025 council meeting to review the proposals and determine if any other items should be added to the list of amendments as well as compose official ballot language, according to a statement included in the meeting documents.
If approved, the amendments will appear on the May 3, 2025 ballot.
