(Updated 10:30 AM Tuesday August 29, 2007)

At its August 27th meeting, the Richardson city council voted to hold a charter election on November 6th. The election would concern three propositions regard the City Council's ability to hold closed door "Executive Sessions," clarify where City Council meetings can be held, and set term limits for City Council members. Some citizens raised objections that a full charter review did not occur.

The three propositions would be voted on separately by the general electorate. Although no public hearing was originally scheduled, Mayor Mitchell opened the floor for citizens to speak about the three propositions.

Some residents were upset with what they saw as a hasty rush into the charter election. By state law if a city changes its charter, then it cannot hold another charter election for 2 years.

“I hadn’t heard about this until last week,” Richardson resident Louise Chandler said, “I don’t think we’ve had enough public input.” She further added that she was “frustrated” and that the haste she perceived made her think some of the propositions, “are not well thought out.”

Several council members noted the importance of executive sessions to that of economic development.

Council person and former Mayor Gary Slagel said, “The kind of developers we see don’t want their competition to know what they are planning.” Current Mayor Steve Mitchell said, "It's very important to have executive sessions. We have to be competitive."

Council person Dennis Stewart stated, “I fully support propositions 1 & 2. I wasn’t aware of [executive sessions’ importance] until we couldn’t have any.”

Bob Townsend said, "I sincerely hope the council calls for a charter review commision."

John Murphy said he was in favor of the first two propositions. He called the term limit proposition (proposition 3) a "frivolous knee jerk reaction." He also stated the urgency of restoring ececutive sessions. "I don't think we can wait," stated Mr Murphy, "Folks who would spend large amounts of money on economic development " want executive sessions or they will go to another city.

The content of the propositions were covered in a previous article. In the coming weeks, the Richardson Echo will discuss the arguments for and against each proposition. If you want to comment on the upcoming charter election, then let us know at our Contact Page.

For the full text of the proposed charter changes, see our previous story:
November Charter Election A Near Certainty