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A Publication of Guidry News Service |
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A Publication of Guidry News Service |
The Galveston Charter Review Committee will present a list of proposed amendments to the City Charter to the city council on Thursday, with a recommendation that the amendments be presented to the voters in the May 15 municipal election. The proposed amendments include election of the mayor and council members by majority vote, rather than plurality; removal of the prohibition of privatization of sanitation services in the downtown area; requiring that deficits created by emergency appropriations be paid off within 36 months; emergency loans must be paid off within 36 months; excluding revenue from grants and loans from the seven percent spending cap in any budget year; deleting the requirement that the Planning Commission submit a capital improvements plan to the city council and that the commission be appropriated funds to contract with city planners and consultants; and providing that the city may only withhold disclosure of records and accounts in accordance with state law. The list also includes an amendment to regulate transfers between enterprise funds and the general fund. The committee also will submit a minority report drafted by Eddie Walsh that calls for an amendment to remove bonded indebtedness from the tax cap. "After serious discussion by the committee, this proposal was initially voted on with seven members in favor and four opposed, with two absent and not voting," Walsh noted. "As such it failed because it did not receive the required eight votes even though a majority of those present were in favor of the motion." Unless the city council has additional assignments for the committee, Monday's meeting was the final session. Members of the committee spoke favorably of the assistance provided by city staff and noted that the group got along very well. Ruth Kempner, the senior member of the charter committee, had praise for Chair Steve Greenberg. "I don't know how many other charter committees that I've been on, and there have been some very interesting times, in which we have needed the presence of police and didn't have it; but this has been the most pleasant," Kempner said giving credit to Greenberg. "He has done his homework and knows what he is talking about and has not pursued his own interests to the detriment of some of the others."
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