Tag Archives: Amarillo City Charter

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How about some more ‘change’ at Amarillo City Hall?

amarillo

Let’s talk among ourselves about the upcoming municipal election.

Amarillo went through a “change election” in 2015 when voters unseated two incumbents and installed a majority of new guys on the five-member City Council; the third new guy won a seat vacated by an incumbent who was just keeping the seat warm until the election.

In May 2017, voters will fill the five seats on the council.

I’m wondering if someone will run solely on the platform of serious change in the city’s voting plan. I’m wondering also about discussing publicly a reform that would involve electing four council members from single-member districts, two of them at-large along with the mayor, who of course also would run citywide.

I wrote in 2013 that I was rethinking my earlier opposition to changing the city’s current five-member at-large council voting plan.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2013/12/re-thinking-single-member-districts/

So I’ll ask the question here. Are we ready to have a serious, adult conversation about changing the City Council’s voting plan?

I’m no longer confident that the at-large system is serving an increasingly diverse city of 200,000 residents, with burgeoning ethnic and racial minorities. The city is growing and it’s becoming a different community than it was a decade ago; it’s a much different place than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

Would such a plan be approved if it were put to a vote? We’ll never know if we don’t try. The city charter would need a serious rewriting. Changing it requires a municipal election.

First, though, we need to have a discussion among those willing to serve on the City Council, to set governing policy.

The so-called “agents of change” who were elected in May 2015 ought to demonstrate a serious commitment to significant change in the city’s governing policy.

That change ought to include a reform of the City Council composition. A hybrid council — partly single-member, partly at-large — such as what I’ve suggested hardly is unique. Indeed, it preserves an at-large option for two council seats that is similar to what’s been enacted in cities of comparable size all across Texas.

The debate until now has been whether to create single-member wards, while keeping the mayor’s seat as the only at-large seat on the council. I think a hybrid solution is more feasible.

At the very least, it’s worth a serious community discussion.

First, though, candidates ought to step up and initiate it.

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Waiting for the big ‘change’ at Amarillo City Hall

tx amar city hall

The agents of change on the Amarillo City Council have made their mark.

Some of it’s been good. Some of it’s been, well, not so good.

I’m waiting for the proposal that will tell me these individuals really meant it when they campaigned for election to the council in 2015.

It involves the city’s at-large voting plan.

Perhaps you know how it goes these days. All five City Council members stand for election every other year. The next election date occurs in May 2017. They’ll all get to run for re-election — or “election” in the case of new Councilwoman Lisa Blake, who was just appointed to the spot vacated by Dr. Brian Eades.

What might the change involve?

Let’s try this: Expanding the council to seven members. Then let’s try electing four of them from voter precincts, dividing the city into equally apportioned quadrants. Then we can elect two council members at-large, along with the mayor.

The debate in Amarillo over single-member districts has been an all-or-nothing proposition. Those who favor changing the system seem fixated on the notion of electing all four council members from districts, having them represent their own neighborhoods. They’ve never seriously discussed the idea of expanding the body and developing a hybrid system that blends the at-large system with their preferred method of electing council members at-large.

Back in the old days, when I was working for The Man, I argued that the current at-large system works well for the city. My view on that has, shall we say, “evolved” since I’m now writing for myself. It’s not that it doesn’t work well; my view now is that some tinkering could make it work better.

Each quadrant could be divided among equal numbers of residents. It would require some finely tuned research to ensure two things: that each section has roughly the same number of voters and that they all represent a “community of common interest.”

They need not be gerrymandered beyond all that is reasonable, the way the Texas Legislature rigs the apportioning of legislative and congressional districts.

A hybrid voting plan has another consequence. It gives the mayor and the two at-large council members additional power by virtue that they would represent the entire city while their colleagues would represent roughly a fourth of Amarillo.

I saw it work in Beaumont, where I worked before moving to the Panhandle in early 1995. Yes, there were occasional disputes among ward representatives over whether a city policy would benefit their particular section of the city. The at-large representatives, though, acted as a bit of a leavening agent to the debate; they could seek to soothe hurt feelings.

I do not want to reveal any names, but one of the new Amarillo council members has told me he intends to propose a change to the city charter that would call for changing the manner in which we elect our governing City Council.

The city is continuing to grow. It is continuing to diversify along ethnic, racial and socio-economic lines. It is continuing to require a little more nuance in the way it is governed.

So far, this council member has been silent.

Let’s have this discussion. Now. Shall we?

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Don't pick a place-setter, Mr. Mayor

Amarillo’s mayor has been given an actual task to perform with the death of City Councilman Jim Simms.

Paul Harpole will go through his grief over the loss of Simms, who cast a far larger shadow over this city than his short physical stature would suggest.

Then he’ll get to select the next councilman to sit at Place 4.

Here’s some advice, Mr. Mayor, from one of your constituents — me: Don’t pick a place-setter, someone who’ll just serve the remainder of Simms’s term and then walk away. Find someone who’ll run for election next year when the entire council faces voters.

The city has some key decisions coming up regarding downtown revitalization. There will be, for example, a proposal for an extreme makeover of the Civic Center, which likely will require a citywide vote. The city needs five council members with a serious commitment to standing behind whatever vote they cast on that notion.

The city charter doesn’t give the mayor a lot of actual power, given that he or she is just one of five council members representing the same citywide constituency as the rest of the council. All of them select the city manager, who does virtually all the heavy lifting at City Hall.

This time the mayor gets to make the call all by himself — I presume after consulting with constituent groups, his colleagues on the council and with potential candidates for the post.

One more thing, Mr. Mayor: You might think about concentrating your search in the areas of the city where residents have complained about “underrepresentation” on the City Council. The North Heights comes to mind.

Good luck, Mr. Mayor. You’ve got a big job ahead.