McKinney City Council members approved an ordinance in a 5-1 vote calling for the items to be added to the ballot at an Aug. 6 meeting, with council member Justin Beller voting against the proposition. Council member Charlie Philips was absent from the meeting and did not cast a vote.
The specifics
The four bond propositions include two items related to the compensation and term limits for City Council members, as well as two administrative items.
The items ask voters to answer either “Yes” or “No” in regards to the four proposed changes to the city charter.
Proposition A asks voters to consider changing the number of terms allowed for the mayor and City Council members to three consecutive terms of four years each. Council members in all seats are currently allowed two consecutive terms of four years each in any given seat. If approved, the change would be effective for the 2025 council election.
Proposition B includes a change to the compensation of council members, and would provide $750 per month for council members and $1,000 per month for the mayor. Council members are currently compensated $50 per City Council meeting as well as a $100 monthly stipend for the mayor.
If approved, the change would be effective for newly-elected council members only, beginning Oct. 1, 2025, and would not change the compensation of members currently seated on the council unless they are re-elected, City Attorney Mark Houser said at the meeting. The change would also allow the rate council members are compensated at to be periodically updated based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.
Proposition C, if approved, would allow city staff to make corrections to “errors” in the charter, such as misspellings and grammar issues, as well as revise references to state laws as needed.
Proposition D asks voters to allow the charter be amended to remove provisions, practices and policies the city no longer uses.
Houser referred to propositions C and D as “non-substantive.”
“Over time, laws change and we have certain things in the charter that we no longer employ,” Houser said of the changes proposed in the two propositions.
The backstory
City Council members began considering a charter amendment election in January, but opted to wait until after the May bond election and consider the items to be added to the November ballot instead.
A 21-person citizen committee was appointed in May to consider four key areas of the charter:
- Term lengths
- Term limits
- Council compensation
- Composition of council member districts
- Maintaining the current term length of four years for City Council members and the mayor
- Maintaining the current mandatory one-year service pause period for following two full terms in a council seat other than mayor before serving in another council position other than mayor
- Execute miscellaneous changes to the charter to align with state law and remove policies no longer used by the city
- Increase the compensation amount and frequency for council members
What they’re saying
Council members discussed the propositions at a work session meeting prior to the regular meeting on Aug. 6.
Mayor Pro Tem Geré Feltus noted that the results of the committee survey on term limits “confirmed” to her that the question should be posed to the community in the upcoming election. In the survey, eight members preferred keeping two terms while 11 preferred increasing to three terms and two members preferring more than three terms.
“Folks want term limits by and large, but it’s a question of how many [terms],” council member Patrick Cloutier said. “It’s very fair to put it to the voters to say, 'Do you want to stick with two or do you want to go to three?’”
Council members also considered including a ballot item that would change the composition of the council, potentially increasing the council from seven to nine members, but ultimately elected not to. The discussion included talk of increasing the council by either adding:
- Two at-large members
- Two single district members
- One at-large member and one single district member
“It’s a bigger conversation, I think we need to talk more about it,” Cloutier said.
Looking ahead
Early voting for the November election will begin Oct. 21 and continue until Nov. 1, with hours varying by day. Election day is Nov. 5.
A full list of polling locations and hours is available here. More information on elections in McKinney is available at www.mckinneytexas.org/139/elections.
