City mulls whether to move some elections
The city of San Marcos will be examining some potential changes to the city charter — including the municipal election cycle — between now and November.
“We are required to have a review of our charter every four years,” Mayor Jane Hughson told council at its meeting Tuesday night, “but per state law we are allowed to amend it no more often than two years.”
Come November, she continued, it will be two years, so if council wants to amend the charter, that would be a time to do it.
Hughson put forth the idea of holding municipal elections in odd-numbered years — if not for all of city council, at least for the mayor — instead of the current system in which mayors are elected for two-year terms and council members are elected for staggered three-year terms.
“Council kinda comes to a standstill during election season,” she said, and making a change to the election cycle could allow the council to get more done. “I would like to see if anybody is interested in that.”
Most members of the council said that they would be more interested in working through potential charter amendments themselves than in appointing a committee to do it. Hughson brought up some recent changes to the charter that were “hotly discussed” that could be reviewed and encouraged council members to read over the charter and see if any other potential amendments might come to mind.
“The charter’s not all that long,” she said.
City Manager Bert Lumbreras said that council’s schedule is pretty full through June already but that he and Hughson will work to find opportunities to meet on potential charter changes.
“We will work on this,” he said. “We will see what we need.”
In other business Tuesday night, council made appointments to a slew of boards and commissions. Patsy Pohl, Michelle Donnelly and Peter Dedek were appointed to the Cemetery Commission. Jason Mock was named to the city’s Comprehensive Plan Oversight Committee. Tammy Walden and Jonathan Loller were named to the Ethics Review Commission.
For the Convention and Visitors Bureau, council chose three appointees: Richard Morace representing the hotel/motel industry, John Lairsen representing Tanger Outlet, and James Martin representing the heritage/museum sector. Gerald Brown, Gloria Salazar and Nina Ramos were named to the Housing Authority, and Ann Whitus, Jayne Baker and Martha Moore were named to the Library Board.
Lisa Prewitt was appointed to replace Scott Gregson in the city council member position on the Economic Development San Marcos board. Other members named to the group are Momar Mattocks, Jason Mock, Adriana Cruz, Eric Algoe, Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe and Joe Kenworthy.
Council named four appointees to the Main Street Advisory Board: Cory Glisson-Munier, Sarah Simpson, Linda Coker and Matt Akins. Appointees to the Parks and Recreation Board are Frank Contreras, Eric Gilbertson, Keith Ubben, Margaret Crittenden and Josh Simpson. Appointees to the Senior Citizen Advisory Board are Wayne Schurter, Mary Catherine Clayton and Naomi Narvaiz.
