2009-02-18 CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES2009 CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2009
Present at the Meeting:
Larry Marcott, Chairman Lawrence Provins
Paul Knoble Jenifer Smith
Rushi Patel
Kurt Evenson
Mike O'Day
The meeting was called to order at 6:40 by the chairman, Larry Marcott.
February 4, 2009 minutes were approved by the Commission.
Mr. Marcott asked each Commission member give their list of topics they would like to
review.
Patel:
O'Day:
Council Districts
Fire Department status
Election by majority
Increasing number of Council persons
Number of districts
Staffing for council persons
Knoble:
Same as above.
Evenson:
Term limits
Length of term
How long do you have to be off council to run again?
Sec. 1.04 Detachment of territory
Method of annexation
Marcott:
In section 3.02. qualifications, what would constitute a valid excuse? Does it
need to be defined?
In section 3.05. mayor pro tem, does it need to be specified how the mayor pro
tem is selected?
Section 3.06. Vacancies, Currently vacancies to the council must be elected by an
election. This results in an expenditure of plus or minus $8,000.00 and double
another if a runoff is required. The correct estimate of the dollars needs to be
confirmed by City Secretary.
Section 3.08. Meeting of the city council, In the second column line three it
states .... and no other subject shall be there considered except with unanimous
consent of the city council..... It would seem that no meeting can be held without
an agenda and only those items on the agenda can be discussed. In addition
notice must be posted and since a notice in the newspaper, notice should be
posted on the City's web site and sent to the citizens via the City's automatic e-
mail.
Section 4.08. Department of health and sanitation, Should this be changed to
include Emergency Medical Services? I believe that our EMS medical doctor is
the same person.
Section 4.09. Volunteer fire department The fire department has now changed to
a volunteer/paid department and we also have a "director of fire services". Does
this change in structure and overall leadership need to be reflected in the charter?
See section 4.13. other departments.
Section 5.03 Conduct of election In line four, ...All elections provided for in the
charter shall be conducted by the election authorities established by law.... Does
the change to the county handling the elections have any impact on this section?
Section 5.06. Election by majority This section talks about any election in which
no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast, a runoff election must be held.
As stated in item 4 above, section 3.06, this runoff election will cost plus of minus
$8,000.00. Do we want this to continue or award office to the highest vote getter?
Section 6.13 Initiative Do we feel that the current election schedule is okay or
should more time be given so that it is held at the next state election date? See
last 21 lines of section.
Section 6.17 Publication of proposed and referred ordinances, third line
...newspaper of general circulation PUBLISHED in the city. Does having their
address/office in Pearland equal "published in the city"? In Section 7.01
Municipal planning and zoning commission 0 it states ...by publication in a
newspaper in general circulation in the city of Pearland. Would it help if
reference was made to the "newspaper of record"
Section 8.21 Taxes, when due and payable. Line two makes reference to the city
assessor -collector. Does the city have an assessor -collector?
Mr. Patel asked for everyone's current opinion on the common issue of transitioning to
single member districts instead of at -large elections. Mr. Patel is in favor of single
member districts to possibly have a voice on the west side of Pearland. Mr. Evenson and
Mr. Knoble are also in favor of single member districts, if it is best for the City. Mr.
Marcott was originally in favor of single member districts but as he has reviewed the
information already provided does not think the time is right for the transition. Mr.
O'Day was originally for single member districts but based on the research he has done
since being appointed to the Commission he is not sure yet.
The Commission agreed that the topic of Single Member Districts is a major issue for the
current Commission and warrants further research and discussion that will need to be
addressed first, as many of the other potential changes to the Charter will depend on what
the end result of this issue is.
Mr. Evenson inquired about the Section 10.07 Conflict of Interest. He wanted to
know if the City had any policies beyond the Charter. He would like Mr. Provins to
provide him with information regarding such.
The next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, March 4 at 6:30 p.m.
The chairman adjourned the meeting at approximately 8:30 p.m.
Minutes approved as submitted and/or corrected this the 4th day of March, A.D., 2009.
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Larry MarcdQ
Chairman