Charter maintains its course: Council decides now not time for revisions

The Rowlett City Council discussed adding charter revisions to the ballot in May during its work session on Tuesday, Feb. 19. The council appointed a charter review committee in November that made recommendations to the council of items that should be changed.

The appointment of a committee to review the charter is required every five years. The recommendations were presented to the council at a joint meeting on Feb. 13.

One of the items the charter review committee wanted to see changed was the current council term limits. Each council member is currently limited to two consecutive two-year terms. The committee recommended making the term limit three consecutive three-year terms.

Several council members said they liked the idea of the longer council terms since it would allow city leaders to be more active on regional boards and would enhance the institutional knowledge of the council. They were not in favor of grandfathering their own terms in as part of the revision.

"We don't want to put any skepticism among the people," said Todd Gottel, Rowlett mayor. "We don't want it perceived that we are trying to extend our own terms. It would be a good thing for the city because it would increase institutional knowledge on the council and it would increase the ability to have an impact outside of the city."

"I don't think the citizens are going to go for it. I think it would go down bad in an election with a lot of people not in favor of it," said Doug Phillips, mayor pro tem. "I really like the idea; I just don't think it's the right time."

The council majority agreed it was not the right time to seek that change, believing it would not be popular among voters and was likely not to pass.

Another change recommended by the committee was making the recall procedure for removing an elected official easier to accomplish. With the recommended changes, any qualified voter in Rowlett can initiate a recall by filing a complaint with the city secretary. The secretary would notify the council of the complaint and deliver petition blanks to the complainant so that signatures could be gathered.

The majority of the council had reservations about placing the new recall procedure on the ballot as well.

"I am not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze," Phillips said.

Councilman Ron Miller thought the citizens would be in favor of the change.

"I would think the citizens would find some comfort with this. If they get a bad councilman, this gives them a way to get rid of them. I don't see anything wrong with it," Miller said.

The council decided after discussing the recall procedure that it did not want to place the items on the ballet this year and will revisit the recommendations next January.

"There is not a consensus to move forward and place this on the ballot this year, so we will bring this back to you this time next year," said Lynda Humble, city manager.

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