City Council seeks to Amend City Charter during May 9th Election

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

The Eagle Pass City Council will be seeking to amend the City of Eagle Pass City Charter during the municipal election to be held on May 9, 2015

During the Eagle Pass City Council meeting held on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, City Council heard a presentation by City Attorney Heriberto Morales of Langley and Banack, Inc. on the procedures for amending the City Charter of the City of Eagle Pass.

Morales stated the Eagle Pass City Council does not have the capacity under the current charter to appoint a member to the city council in case of resignation by one of its members or other issues that could leave council short a member. For example, when former City Councilwoman Asalia Casares was appointed County Commissioner of Precinct 2 in June 2013, the City had to conduct an election for electing her replacement because the City Charter does not currently provide City Council a procedure to appoint a replacement without having to hold an election.

“You just approved a day for the election which is May 9, 2015 and that will be the day that we recommend a city charter amendment. Your city charter can be amended, altered, modified, repealed or tweaked in any manner under the constitution and only when two (2) years have passed between the last modification,” said Morales.

Morales advised city council that the last amendment to the City of Eagle Pass charter had taken place in 2010.

“Secondly, your city charter or ordinance provides that you can actually appoint a five (5) member commission that will provide input or recommendations to the council and then the council would act on those,” added Morales.

Morales noted that the appointment of a commission was neither necessary nor mandatory. “Technically, you may take whatever you may have such as a running list of things that you may want to address and then you may provide them to the legal department so they can be tweaked in a format that is required so they can formally be presented as possible amendments to the charter,” said Morales.

“In addition, administration may keep a list of things that they have been seeing through the years since the last election and you can take those into account. You are not mandated to put any and all of the ones that administration has presented to you. Ultimately, the City Council has the authority to determine which ones will go on the ballot,” added Morales.

Morales advised City Council that a list had been kept by legal counsel on certain issues that have been seen throughout the years and that they were to be provided to city council for their review and consideration.

Morales pointed that due to changes last year by the United States Supreme Court in respects to the pre-clearance process of elections under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the city council would no longer have to go through, but that legal counsel still recommended that council do adhere to, the pre-clearance process as a formality to cover all bases.

“We recommend that it be sent 60 to 90 days before the date of the election,” said Morales.

“You have a very short window, which means it starts now to late February for you all to consider what modifications you may want to make to the city charter and provide that input so we can formalize it and have it ready,” concluded Morales.

Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey English Cantu highlighted that even though the city charter amendments vote would be during the May 9th municipal election, but that the City Charter Amendment ballot would be separate from the City Council positions up for election. By holding the City Charter amendment election on May 9th, the City would save significant election costs.

The City Council did not take any action as the agenda item was for presentation purposes only by City Attorney Heriberto Morales.