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Published Friday, July 29, 2011 12:02 AMA committee made up of residents will advise the College Station City Council to delay changing the rules for how an elected councilmember can be kicked out of office, its chairwoman said Thursday.
Many had expected the city to revise the recall process in May 2012. But now -- due to a new state law -- it may have to wait until at least 2013.
The reason is that the recall procedure is set in the city charter, which can only be changed by a city-wide vote. But a new state law has made it nearly impossible for College Station to have such a vote in 2012.
So instead they have two choices: Rush the issue to the ballot by this November or wait until 2013.
The Citizens Charter Review Committee, appointed by the council to provide advice on the charter, has voted to wait.
"It was just too tight of a timeframe to get adequate public input from the commission in time to come up with the ballot language," said Lynn McIlhaney, who chairs the citizens' board.
In order to put the issue on the ballot for November, the council would have to approve the language of the propose amendment by Aug. 12. But the council only has one scheduled regular meeting between then and now, on Aug. 11. City officials said they worry that that is not enough time to take on such a change.
One proposed charter amendment will definitely be on the November ballot: Voters will be asked to decide how the city's elections should change to line up with the new state law.
City council elections are scheduled in May of each year, and members serve staggered three-year terms. But the Texas Legislature this year moved the date of party primary runoffs in the state to May, which will overlap with the city races. Brazos County doesn't have the resources to run two elections at once, so both Bryan and College Station will need to adjust.
College Station City Secretary Sherry Mashburn has given the council two choices: Change their term lengths so that elections are only held on odd-numbered years -- when there are no primary races -- or move the elections to November. Either way, voters will need to approve the change in November, Mashburn said.
That disrupts the already-scheduled review of the city charter because College Station can only have a charter election once every two years.
The idea of changing the recall rules arose this year when Mayor Nancy Berry and councilmembers Katy-Marie Lyles and Dave Ruesink were targeted for the action because of their support of the annexation of Wellborn. Some Wellborn residents collected enough signatures to put the candidates' recall on the ballot, but were easily defeated at the polls in May.
The issue was a major distraction from the governance of the city and should be prevented in the future, proponents of the change have said. In College Station, voters don't need a reason to seek the removal of an elected official. In other cities, such as Bryan, recall is only allowed in cases of incompetence, official misconduct, criminal conviction or habitual drunkenness.
"We just lived through a year of disruption that we don't care to have to go through again," Councilman Karl Mooney said this week. "My concern is that waiting two years or 18 months is too long to address those things. We saw that it takes six months to be disruptive."
The council could still vote to place the issue on the November ballot. They have called a special meeting for Aug. 8 to consider proposed charter amendments. But other members have indicated that they have no problem waiting.
"I think as far as the recall issue, the urgency of it in my mind has somewhat been abated in the last election when people realized how much it was being misused," said Councilwoman Blanche Brick.
Source: http://www.theeagle.com/local/CS-recall-revision-may-have-to-wait
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