The Charter Committee Chairperson Jennifer Sullivan gave her presentation to the Sealy City Council on the Amendments to the city’s charter.  Five changes to the city charter are being recommended by the charter committee.  Many of the changes were made to streamline it and make it consistent with state law.  The amendments that will be voted on in the May Election (May 7th at the Sealy Knights of the Columbus and early voting starts on April 25 at Sealy City Hall) will be:

Proposition 1

Formal Wording:  Shall Section 3.03 of article III of the City Charter be amended to remove a partial term being calculated for purposes of term limits?
Meaning:  This change was proposed to allow a new councilperson who is installed into the position mid-term (say in the instance of a serving council person stepping down or being unable to complete their term) the new person will not have that partial term count against them for the purposes of term limits.

Proposition 2

Formal Wording:  Shall Section 3.07 (B) (4) of Article III of the City Charter be amended to the language of forfeiture of office be consistent with state law?
Meaning:  This was proposed to bring the city charter in line with state law.  It actually makes no substantive change other than legal wording.

Proposition 3

Formal Wording:  Shall Section 3.07 (C) of Article III of the City Charter by amended to allow the City Council to fill vacancies on City Council by appointment, if the unexpired term is twelve months or less?
Meaning: This provision will save the city the expense of holding a formal special election in the instance of a candidate stepping down WITH LESS THAN 12 months left in their term. It gives the city council the power to appoint someone to fill out the remainder of the term.

Proposition 4

Formal Wording:  Shall Section 5.08 of Article V of the City Charter be amended so that the Language pertaining to canvassing elections and declaring results is consistent with state law.
Meaning:  This was proposed to bring the city charter in line with state law.  It actually makes no substantive change other than legal wording.  It adds the wording “as set forth in state law” to that section of the charter.

Proposition 5

Formal Wording:  Shall Section 9.13(C) of Article IX of the City Charter be amended to allow City Council to extend the charter review commission’s term of office beyond six months?
Meaning: This change would allow the charter more than six months to complete their charter review in the case it is needed due to unforeseen circumstances. Currently, the committee has a set period of six months that they are allowed to meet but, no more. This would allow them additional time to review the charter, as long as they had it completed in time for the city council to approve recommendations and publish the proposals in time for the May election.

You can watch the presentation below from the 00:09:46 mark of the video to the 00:15:30 mark of the video.

 

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