(After reading this article, take a look at this story about how members of the committee came to their recommendations.)
By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A slate of proposed amendments to the city charter were unveiled during the city council’s most recent meeting.
The proposed changes, which will likely go before Del Rio voters in November, are the recommendations of a charter review commission made up of citizens that had been looking over the city’s governing document since January.
At the outset of the presentation, Mayor Al Arreola invited Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez to give council members an overview of the process so far.
Chavez said, “This was a task that was given to the charter review committee, and I just want to mention the charter review committee met regularly, and I want to commend each member. They took their job very seriously.
“We did have an attorney from Denton Navarro (the city’s contracted legal advisors), Mr. Charlie Zech, who also presided over the meeting, provided guidance, and the charter review committee finished this project in early June. The idea was to bring all the recommendations by the charter review committee to the new council, and Mr. Zech also needed some time to prepare the documents you have before you all,” Chavez said.
Chavez also told the council it has until Aug. 19 to call the election for the proposed charter changes.
Chavez invited Zech, who joined the meeting via video link, to make his presentation to the council.
Zech called his presentation a broad overview of the process and proposed changes and said it was his understanding that council members had received the documents with all of the proposed changes.
“Those (changes) you determine should go in the charter will be propositions, and there is language that will go on the ballot that citizens will vote on as to whether or not to amend the charter. There (will be) some propositions on the ballot that will result in multiple amendments to your charter,” Zech told the council.
He said the first set of amendments deal with sections of the charter that have been determined to be either duplicative of state law or otherwise unnecessary to be in the charter “because state law has determined that those provisions are not necessary to be in your charter to effectuate the reasons they are in the charter now.”
Zech went into a list of the sections of the charter for which amendments had been recommended.
“Some of them are just one or two sentence changes,” Zech said.
Sections to be amended because they duplicate state law or are otherwise unnecessary to be included in the charter include Section 3, General Powers of the City; Section 5, Eminent Domain; Section 17, Powers; and Section 31.1, City Auditor.
Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez said a concern she had when reviewing the proposed amendments was “removing some of the delineation that’s contained in here.”
“For example, the general powers of the city, eminent domain and powers. I believe the citizens would need to know what those are. We have the benefit of counsel here to help us, but the city charter is for the citizens as well, and so I had some concerns about taking away every enumerated item under the ‘general powers of the city,’ what they can and can’t do. For example, the city can be sued, and the city can sue, and that is one of the concerns that I have,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said she had no concerns with removing portions of the charter that duplicated state law or were otherwise not necessary for inclusion.
“But when it comes to what the city can do and what rights the citizens have, those are the ones I would be concerned about removing,” she added.
Zech continued with his presentations, giving a list of other sections recommended for amendment because they duplicate state law or are otherwise unnecessary to include in the charter, including sections related to the city’s budget, the city’s finance administration, tax administration and the issuance and sale of bonds.
Zech then reviewed a list of sections to be amended because portions of them are inconsistent with state law or other charter sections.
Those sections include Section 15, Presiding Officer; Mayor, Mayor Pro-Tem; Section 24, Municipal Court; Appointment of Judge and Clerk; Section 29, Procedure for Passage of Ordinances; Section 34, Voting Precincts; Section 35, Councilperson Districts; Section 37, Mayor and Councilperson Ballots; Section 39(b), Vacancies in Office of Mayor or Councilperson; and Section 134, Oath of Office.
As an example, Zech noted the current charter calls on the county judge to set an election for mayor and councilpersons if all of those positions became vacant at the same time, but he pointed out the charter cannot confer any powers on the county judge. He said the county judge only has those powers conferred by state law.
“That’s an example of the type of changes we’re looking at,” he said.
Zech went over the sections of the charter to which the charter commission has recommended specific amendments, beginning with Section 14, Compensation of Member of the City Council.
“This proposed amendment would increase the city council maximum compensation from $100 per regular meeting attendance to $200 for regular meeting attendance,” Zech said.
The committee also recommended a change to Section 19, Removal of City Manager.
“This amendment is to clarify . . . that when making a decision to remove the city manager from office, it does not require all of city council to be physically present for that vote, but rather it is required that a vote by city council be a majority of the city council to remove the city manager as opposed to a majority of the city council present and voting,” Zech said.
The next proposed amendment involved Section 22, Administrative Departments.
“This amendment would require city council to solicit the recommendation of the city manager on any proposed ordinance creating, changing or abolishing any offices and departments,” Zech said.
Another section slated for amendment is Section 43, City Manager; Powers and Duties.
“The committee is proposing some strikeouts with respect to the city manager’s powers and duties for the purpose of clarifying those powers and duties. I don’t believe there are any substantive changes to this, just for the purposes of clarification,” Zech said.
He said a similar amendment was suggested for the section dealing with the powers and duties of the city attorney.
“Again, the committee did not intend any substantive changes, but just to clean up, clarify and simplify the language related to the powers and duties of the city attorney,” Zech said.
One of the substantive changes in the charter proposed by the committee comes in Article IV, Section 48, Qualifications of Attorney and Assistants.
“It would remove the requirement that an assistant city attorney become licensed to practice before the United States District Court of the Western District of Texas within one-and-a-half years from the date of their appointment as a condition of their continued employment with the city,” Zech said.
Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus asked why that recommendation was made.
“My recollection is that (the current provision) limits the ability to get qualified lawyers. Not all lawyers are litigators, and of course, being licensed to practice before the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas is a litigation requirement, but not a requirement to be a city attorney,” Zech replied.
The next proposed amendment dealt with the powers and duties of the finance director and an amendment was recommended “to clean up, clarify and simplify the language” as it had been in the sections involving the city manager and the city attorney.
The final section recommended for amendment dealt with “what needs to go on the ballot for a recall election.
“It requires the creation of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, with the ballot language to be a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to the question of whether or not a council member should be recalled,” Zech said.
The council then heard from members of the charter commission but took no formal action. (See separate story.)
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
