Council formally authorizes November election with 13 proposed charter amendments

City of Austin voters will face a loaded ballot in November, with 13 charter amendments to be decided as well as a full slate of political races to elect a mayor and five City Council members.

City Council last week ordered a Nov. 5 general election, which will include a special election for the proposed amendments to the city charter. Travis County, the Austin Independent School District and other nearby jurisdictions will also have ballot items for voters to decide in addition to the presidential election.

What’s not on the city ballot was a controversial proposal to increase the number of signatures required for voter-initiated ordinances. That proposal, widely opposed by grassroots activists, failed to gain a motion when Council finalized the propositions in July.

In addition to the mayor’s race, voters will choose Council members in Districts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10. Districts 7 and 10 are open seats, with winning candidates succeeding outgoing Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool and Council Member Alison Alter.

The proposed charter amendments, starting with the letter C, will appear on the ballot as follows:

Proposition C: Shall the City Charter be amended to clarify that the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC) is independent of City Council control, allow the ICRC to review City districts after changes to the City’s boundary lines, provide an effective date for the redistricting plan adopted by the ICRC, increase the number of individuals in the pool of potential appointees to the ICRC, clarify the method and timing of filling vacancies on the ICRC, and allow City staff to communicate with the ICRC outside of a meeting as long as such communication is in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act?

Proposition D: Shall the City Charter be amended to delete language providing that the City Council shall meet at least once each week?

 Proposition E: Shall the City Charter be amended to delete language requiring the City Council to determine its rules and order of business by ordinance?

 Proposition F: Shall the City Charter be amended to clarify the meaning of the term “election” and to provide that the campaign contribution and expenditure limits shall be modified each year by January 1st instead of with the adoption of the budget?

 Proposition G: Shall the City Charter be amended to provide that initiative elections and citizen-initiated charter amendment elections must be held on the next available November election date that occurs in an even-numbered year and that allows sufficient time to comply with other requirements of law?

 Proposition H: Shall the City Charter be amended to provide that a petition for an election to recall a City Council Member other than the Mayor must contain valid signatures of at least 15% of the qualified voters of the respective Council district, instead of the current 10%, and to clarify that the affidavit on the recall petition must be signed by a petition circulator rather than by a person who signed the petition?

 Proposition I: Shall the City Charter be amended to provide that the City Council appoints and removes the City Attorney?

 Proposition J: Shall the City Charter be amended so that the time frame for the automatic resignation provision for municipal court judges is the same as that provided in the Texas Constitution for other officials?

 Proposition K: Shall the City Charter be amended to ensure that City financial practices are consistent with generally accepted accounting principles, reflect current practices for appropriations for department-level work programs, and reflect best practices in contract execution authority and competitive bidding procedures consistent with state law for local government procurement, and also be amended to increase the annual amount of contracted expenditures the City Manager may approve without Council approval?

 Proposition L: Shall the City Charter be amended to remove appointees and employees of the office of the City Auditor from the classified civil service?

 Proposition M: Shall the City Charter be amended to remove the requirement that an individual must submit an affidavit to provide notice to the City of a claim of death, personal injury, or damaged or destroyed property, and to align the claim notice deadline with state law?

 Proposition N: Shall the City Charter be amended to make non-substantive corrections of typographical errors, punctuation, and sentence structure, and to change or remove language that is moot or unenforceable because it has been superseded by state law or by a final court order?

 Proposition O: Shall the City Charter be amended to remove the restriction that officeholders must wait until after leaving office in order to solicit and accept political contributions to pay unpaid campaign expenses or to reimburse campaign expenditures made from personal funds and to impose contribution limits on such officeholders?

Proposition O includes language amended by Pool to ensure that the contribution limits that apply to candidates would also apply to officeholders who raise funds to pay off campaign debt while in office.

The last day to register to vote is Oct. 7. Early voting is set for Oct. 21-Nov. 1.

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