At its Feb. 5 meeting, Tomball City Council unanimously approved adopting, on first reading, an ordinance that would send 18 propositions to amend the city’s charter to voters—including a proposition outlining term limits for City Council members and the mayor.
After adoption on second reading, set to happen during a special meeting Feb. 9, all 18 propositions will appear on the ballot for the May 4 municipal election for voters to decide.
In a nutshell
According to the Feb. 5 agenda packet, if approved by voters, Proposition F would add a section to the city’s charter outlining the term limits for the mayor and council members, which would be:
- Four consecutive full terms, or 12 consecutive years, whichever is longest
- After reaching their term limit, a council member or the mayor would not be eligible to be elected again until they are out of office for one full year.
According to the agenda packet, the 17 other propositions would amend the charter for reasons such as:
- Bringing it into compliance with state law
- Updating grammatical errors and misspellings
- Replacing the term councilman or councilmen with council member or council members
- Replacing pronoun-specific language with office- and title-specific language
- Clarifying responsibilities of offices, such as the city manager, mayor and mayor pro-tem
- Clarifying the council’s role in approving city administrative positions
- Adding a section allowing council to appoint council members to serve as liaisons between each board and commission
During discussion at the Feb. 5 meeting, council member Mark Stoll attempted to amend his motion to remove Proposition F from the list of propositions to be on the ballot. That failed in a 3-2 vote, with council members Dane Dunagin and Randy Parr voting against, Derek Townsend abstaining, and Stoll and John Ford voting in approval.
After that vote, council approved Stoll amending his motion to reduce the time needed to sit out before being eligible to run for election again from one full term—or three years—to one full year. The amended motion received unanimous council approval.
How we got here
Last September, Tomball City Council appointed a charter review commission to review the charter and recommend changes. Led by City Attorney Loren Smith, the commission met with Tomball City Council during special meetings Jan. 22 and Jan. 29 to present their recommended propositions.
A majority of the charter review commission voted against recommending a proposition on term limits, although there was discussion, Smith said at the Jan. 29 special meeting.
At the Jan. 29 special meeting, council discussed adding a proposition that would amend the charter to create term limits, ultimately voting 3-2 to direct Smith to write up a proposition that would be included with the original 17 propositions the charter review commission recommended.
- Stoll and Ford voted against. Dunagin, Townsend and Parr voted in approval.
What they’re saying
- “All this is is saying give the citizens the right to vote on the charter review in this item,” Mayor Lori Klein Quinn said during the Feb. 5 meeting. “And if people want term limits, they’ll vote yes. If they don’t want term limits, they’ll vote no.”
- “We currently do have term limits. It’s called elections,” Stoll said during the Feb. 5 meeting. “We have them every year.”
Stay tuned
During a special meeting at 5 p.m. Feb. 9, council will consider adopting, on second reading, the ordinance that would send all 18 propositions to amend the city’s charter to voters May 4.
View the proposed propositions below.
