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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEuless Charter under Review by Special Committee Newspaper Article 7/11/91DIS RIB( Er1 TO CITY COUNCIL J T. HART } . CODBEY S. NORWOOD S. CRIM B. EARLE CITY ATTORNEY a Euless charter un by ecia CO 1Iy ❑ Blue ribbon group makes 17 recommendations on charter to Council By L. JAMES KUNKE News Staff Writer EULESS — Longer City Council terms and the addition of another council member are two of the 17 charter 'election ballot items rec- ommended by a citizens' charter review committee. The committee report officially McCormick, Walker and Wilcox also served as mayor pro-tem dur- ing their time on the council. The other committee members included former HEB School Board President Neal Adams; for- mer Parks and Recreation Board Chairman Marland Ernest; former Strategic Plan Commission mem- ber Charles Miller; former Zoning Board of Adjustments member Bill Pasteur; and former employee and current Parks and Recreation Board member Bonnie O'Brien. Samuels said all that experience working with the city, and with the was accepted Tuesday by the Eu- less City Council, which has agreed that a citywide charter election should be held in early November. "We will have at least one meet- ing ourselves with council and staff to discuss this," said Mayor Harold Samuels. "Some of the recom- mended changes would affect the council election next year, so we DATE: 7.- //- P/ er review mittee city charter, enabled the commit- tee to deal directly with inconsis- tencies in the charter. "I think it is the most talented committee, in background, that the city has put together, at least since I've been mayor," he said. Many of the 17 proposed ballot items deal with state and federal laws and judicial rulings put into place since the charter was written in 1962. "Basically, we were a much smaller city then and we were try- ing to cover a lot of different things back when we wrote that original want to get it out of the way early. That will give several months for us to prepare and for people to consider running for the council." The committee, formed last No- vember to review possible changes in the city charter, was headed by former mayor Jimmy Payton. Pay- ton also was a member of the origi- nal charter committee in 1962. Joining Payton on the review committee were five former coun- cil members totalling 49 years on the council: Willie Mae McCor- mick, Bill Byers, Glenn Walker, Bob Pippin and Dwayne Wilcox. charter," Payton said. "We had dif- ferent concerns. "So what we tried to address with this committee was to go back to any state or federal laws that have changed, and if the charter is in conflict with them we had to change those things. Then, any court decisions that have been handed down by the state supreme court or federal Supreme Court, (we had to) consider those." The next step taken by the com- 0 Please See CHARTER, Page 3A Z ,❑ Continued from Page IA mittee, Payton said, was to insert gender neutral language wherever. possible. "That was something that was not even thought about when we wrote the charter," Payton said. The last stage of discussions by the committee involved specific policy changes, namely the added City Council member, the change in council terms and a change in contract procedures. "We felt like we have grown considerably from a town of 5,000 people to 90,000-plus at this time, and we felt like at least one more cycle elect two council members and the mayor," Payton added. "That lends stability so that at all times you have at least two mem- bers with two years experience." The change in contract proce- dures would allow the mayor to delegate some daily authority to city staff. "Right now, any contracts are supposed to be signed by the may- or, even contracts to buy supplies or for stocking the cold drink stand at the rec center," Payton said. "Those are things you do every day with staff that you need to dele- gate, so we made that change." Those recommendations now must be approved by the council, council member with the mayor voting would give us broader rep- resentation," Payton said. That change would actually add two votes to the council, since the mayor currently votes only to break ties. "The three-year terms was not a hard decision, although we did dis- cuss it at length," Payton said. "It was felt by those that have served on the council, especially in recent years, that it takes at least a year to really get your feet on the ground and understand what's go- ing on. "In addition to that, we can stag- ger the council and elect two coun- cil people each year and on one y1y then placed on a ballot to be sent before Euless voters. Any charter revisions approved by the voters would be inserted into the city charter. Samuels said he sees no prob- lem with getting council approval for all 17 items. "The committee was kind enough each time they met over the last six to seven months to keep minutes and send us those min- utes," Samuels said. "Although none of the council met with the folks during that time, if we had a question we could always call them up and visit with them. "I certainly agree with all that the committee is recommending and I believe the council is behind it as well," he added. Payton said the next step, after council approval,will be to sell the package of revisions to the voters. "I think the committee did a commendable job," he said. "I am very pleased with- the end product, and while we didn't have unani- mous consent votes on every issue, we did have the unanimous support of the committee on the final product. "So we can all go out and say we support this to the city council and can also say to the voters we feel this is a good product and it will improve the way the city operates under the charter," Payton said.