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Charter Review Committee Minutes
September 22, 2011
Community Board Room
Members Present:
Chairman Bill Agan
SecretaryNice Chair Jeff Ritter
Member Loyce Greer
Member Doug Knowlton
Member Ralph Smith
Member LaRue Wall
Audience Present:
Janece Hill
Jeremy Hill
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Bill Agan at 7:00 PM.
1 Read and Approve minutes from last meeting (September 8, 2011)
Member Knowlton motioned to approve the minutes, Member Wall seconded.
The minutes from the September 8, 2011 meeting were approved by unanimous vote.
2 Review Previous Articles through Section 5.
Chairman Agan distributed Member Greer's proposed new Charter indexing system.
Sec. 4.01 —Enumerated Powers
Secretary Ritter questioned replacing the reference to Chapter 13 with the more standard
V.T.C.A. reference.
The consensus was that it would be better to refer to V.T.C.A. as there will be references
to specific chapters in the Charter when applicable, but that ultimately it was a legal
question, and should be a question for the City Attorney.
Sec. 5.01 —City Officials
Member Greer recommended increasing raising the pay of the Mayor to $25.00 per
meeting and$20.00 to Council members per meeting and not pay for travel expenses.
Member Smith raised concerns about raising the pay during such difficult economic
times.
Members Knowlton, and Smith recommended adding "When Inside Tarrant County"as
the only travel paid for without prior approval of the Council.
Member Smith questioned the expense of the Charter Review process, especially the cost
of mailing Charters to the citizens, publishing in the newspaper, and our financial fiscal
responsibility to the citizens.
Chairman Agan indicated that the cost was not the concern of this Committee, and that
the only concern of the Committee should be to create the best Charter for the citizens
and that any financial questions would be the decision of the Council.
Member Greer recommended setting Mayor pay at $20.00 per regularly scheduled
meeting attended and Council member pay at $10.00 per regularly scheduled meeting
attended.
Member Knowlton recommended setting Mayor pay at $15.00 per regularly scheduled
meeting and Council member pay at $10.00 per regularly scheduled meeting attended.
Members Greer, Wall and Ritter discussed the fact that the Mayor travels 2 to 3 times a
week, signs papers, and has other duties that Council members do not and that even
$20.00 was a very small amount that did not come close to reimbursing out-of-pocket
expenses.
Member Wall Motioned to set Mayor pay at$20.00 per regularly scheduled meeting
attended and Council member pay at $10.00 per regularly scheduled meeting attended.
Member Greer seconded.
Members Greer, Wall and Ritter voted "YES", Member Knowlton voted "YES"but had
reservations and wanted to review the item later, Member Smith abstained from voting.
Members Smith and Knowlton indicated they really liked Member Greer's proposed new
indexing of the Charter.
Members Smith and Ritter discussed it may be difficult to re-index at this point without
knowing exactly what the new Charter would contain.
Members Smith and Ritter will attempt to re-index our current Charter to fit within
Member Greer's proposed index.
Sec. 5.02—Qualifications
Secretary Ritter read his proposed changes in bulleted format.
Member Knowlton indicated it is important that the qualifier"shall not"be included in
the bulleted items.
Member Smith motioned to accept member Ritter's proposed wording and bullets with
the addition of"shall not"placed in appropriately.
Member Knowlton seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Sec. 5.03—Date of Election; Candidates to Run for Places; Places Designated.
Discussion of everyone regarding the new SB 100 election laws and the unknown effect
on this section.
Secretary Ritter motioned to table until the effects are more clearly understood.
Member Smith seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Sections 5.04—5.07.
Secretary Ritter motioned to table Sections 5.04 —5.07 until the effects of SB 100 are
more clearly understood.
Member Smith seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Sec. 5.08—Judge of Election
Member Ritter recommended adding a reference to Section 5.02 in the section in order to
be certain the qualifications agree throughout the Charter and for clarity.
Member Smith motioned adding a reference to Section 5.02 in the section to clearly
specify the qualifications for office.
Member Wall seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Sec. 5.09— Vacancies
Members Knowlton and Greer recommended changing the 180 days to 120 days to be
aligned with current State Law.
Member Knowlton motioned changing the 180 days to 120 days.
Member Smith seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Sec. 5.10—City Council Meetings
Secretary Ritter recommended adding the State Law reference to the section.
Member Smith motioned to add the State Law reference to the section.
Member Knowlton seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
�.� Sec. 5.11 —Absence of Mayor and Council members
Discussion by everyone regarding specifying the procedure for removing members to be
arranged in a bulleted, step-by-step manner.
Extensive discussion by everyone regarding the use of the words "may" or"shall" in
regards to the procedure for removing a member.
Consensus of the Committee was that there shall be a set procedure for removing a
member, but the decision to actually remove that member should be a decision of the
Council.
Member Wall motioned to change "may" to "shall" in regards to initiating a removal
proceeding and to arrange the procedure in a bulleted, step-by-step format.
Member Greer seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
Member Knowlton motioned for the Committee to meet every 2 weeks.
Member Smith seconded.
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.
3 Assignment for next meeting
Members Smith and Ritter will attempt to re-align and index the current Charter to match
Member Greer's proposed Charter.
Members will research and propose changes starting with section 5.12 for next meeting.
4 Public Comments
Janece Hill: Stressed that Council members should be held responsible for their actions
as a Council member and should be at all of the Council meetings.
5 Adjournment
Member Knowlton motioned to adjourn the meeting.
Member Smith seconded.
The motion to adjourn was approved by unanimous vote.
Chairman Agan adjourned the meeting at 8:55 PM.
Jeff Ritter-Secretar 11 Agan-Chairm evA