HomeMy WebLinkAboutCRC Minutes 1981-08-31 Regular =tip
MINUTES OF CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION
August 31 , 1981
The Charter Review Commission held a meeting on
Monday, August 31 , 1981, at 8 : 00 p.m. , in the
Mayor' s Office at City Hall,- with the following
members present.
Lynn Eignus , Chairman
William Kelly
Billy Glines
Jim Bowman
Ruth Henry, Secretary
With a quorum present and with Gary Taliaferro absent ,
the meeting proceeded as follows:
Jim Bowman was administered the oath of office since he
was absent at the first meeting ,on August 24 , 1981.
Mr. Bowman introduced himself to the group and told of
his background and length of time in Friendswood. The
other members of the Commission gave a brief background
of themselves for his benefit.
Lynn Eignus reported that the letters requesting input
in writing had been mailed to the various boards and
commissions as discussed at the first meeting.
A letter from Mayor Whittenburg suggested three points
for consideration.
1. Districting Council Members
2 . Limiting terms of Council Members
3 . (Section 6 . 02 under A-5 ) Incumbent
seeking election must file for
the same office or position number
presently' serving. If incumbent
seeks another office he must first
resign. The Mayor proposes to add
tha'date -ofhis _filing for office.
Page 2
The first topic of discussion was districting Council
members . Several Commissioners felt this would be a
necessary step toward annexation of Wedgewood. The
Commission also decided they would need legal advise
on laws governing districting. The Commission
feels they need as many pros as cons befor considering
the above topic.
On the second topic , terms of Council Members, most
Commissioners felt terms should not be . limited, but
left up to the voters to decide. Several felt their
should be some limitation, however, for the purpose of
control.
They felt the resigning of one office to run for another
should allow plenty of time for the vacant position
to be filed for instead of holding a special election.
The Commission generally agreed with the third proposal
but felt that there should be more clarification in
the wording.
OA
Dale Whittenburg
President
(713)482-2413
u"OU/91f/IgA P.O. Box 377 • Friendswood, Texas 77546
August 24, 1981
Linn C. Eignus
Chairman, Charter Review Committee
P. O. Box 392
Friendswood, Texas 77546
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Congratulations to ydu and your fellow members of the
Charter Review Committee on your appointments.
There are a couple of items that I would like to address
to the committee.
Districting Council Members:
I feel very strongly that areas could be better
represented in the future by district members
especially since our population and square miles
keeps growing. I have no particular magic number
of how many districts that I would recommend
being set up, nor do I have any really strong
rational behind my recommendation except better
representation to the citizens.
Limit Terms of Council Members:
1. I feel very strongly that we should limit
the terms of council members so that we can not
allow any one particular member to dominate our
council by numerous years of the same old programs.
Hopefully, by limiting the terms we could 'have fresh
ideas to do business with. This, as you know,
was supported by the --)as' Charter Re ie1 Cormittee.
My suggestion would b . t1 ree 2—ear con: ecu+ ive
terms. I would not b > s1-ror3ly oppcsed to three
3-year consecutive to .ms as I al l cor fidf !nt c f
the ability of the fi ,e r en appointr d a, ; ou: comm-
issioners to recommend w1 at is '.)est for our city.
r Dale Whittenburg
President
(713)482-2413
�r7Cl/�?^a� LdIG 1QOO / P.O. Box 377 • Friendswood, Texas 77546
r:
Linn C. Eignus
August 24, 1981
Page 2
2. Another item I would like to address is
found in section 6.02 under A-5, "An incumbent
seeking election must file- for the same office
or position number presently serving. If incum-
bent seeks another office or position number,
he must first resign. " I think that should read,
"he must first resign effective the date of his
filing for his office. "
This item seems to have caused problems in the
past.
I, suspect that I will have more items to submit as
time goes on. - -
R ectively,
Dale Whittenburg
DW/dlw �J
cc: Mr. Billy Glines
Mr. Jim Bowman
Mr.. Gary Taliaferro
Mr. William Kelly
V Ralph Lowe P'
1605 S. Friendswood Drive
Friendswood
JTom Lay
911 Layfair Place
Friendswood
V Vickie Black
407
Brandywine
Friendswood
vR. J. Blanken
309 Leisure Lane
Friendswood
✓ilton Windler
516 Fairdale
Friendswood
/Richard Haken
vvv 804 Lexington
Friendswood
,/Gilliam Patton
314 Morningside
Friendswood
Benny Baker
/Paul Maaz
401 Fallingleaf
Friendswood