Arlington City Council Special Meeting – November 12, 2024: Charter Amendments, Signage Program, and Unfinished Structures Ordinance Discussed
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Arlington City Council Special Meeting – November 12, 2024
The Arlington City Council held a special meeting on November 12, 2024, in the Council Briefing Room at 101 W. Abram Street. The meeting began with an executive session at 1:03 PM, lasting until 2:46 PM, followed by an open session reconvened at 3:33 PM and adjourned at 4:27 PM. Discussions focused on proposed charter amendments for the May 2025 election, updates on the Commercial Signage Improvement Program, a proposed ordinance targeting unfinished structures, and other administrative items. No formal votes were taken; the meeting served as a work session for council deliberation.
Charter Amendments
- City Attorney Molly Shortall presented a primer on home rule charters and proposed five minor cleanup amendments to align the Arlington charter with state law: (1) runoff election dates to be held per state law, (2) changing "city health officer" to "health authority," (3) allowing council to designate polling places rather than mandating City Hall, (4) removing a requirement for a 12-citizen committee to approve time warrants, and (5) adding authority to issue debt for economic development bonds.
- Councilmember Barbara Odom-Wesley raised the topic of removing council compensation ($200/month for council, $250/month for mayor) from the charter and instead setting it by ordinance, allowing more flexibility and periodic review. Councilmembers debated advantages (flexibility, ability to decrease) and disadvantages (removing voter control, potential for future councils to raise pay). Several councilmembers suggested bracketing or delaying implementation (e.g., five-year deferral). Mayor Ross requested staff to bring back options with guardrails for further discussion. Council agreed to continue deliberation before the January 28, 2025 first-reading deadline.
- Councilmember Odom-Wesley also proposed removing gender-specific references (e.g., "councilman") throughout the charter, updating the current saving clause from 1980 that states references to male gender include females. Council supported the idea as a grammatical fix to reflect that both genders can hold office, with caution to clearly communicate the intent.
Commercial Signage Improvement Program Update
- Gincy Thoppil, Director of Planning and Development Services, reported on the program’s progress. The program offers 100% reimbursement for removing non-compliant pole signs and 50% toward replacement (up to $10,000 per site) on a first-come, first-served basis. Councilmember Ruben Gonzalez asked about outreach to the business community; Thoppil confirmed she had contacted the Chamber of Commerce and would continue advertising. Councilmember Galante encouraged further engagement. The program is continuing.
Housing Rehabilitation Program Annual Update
- No discussion was held on this item.
FY 2025 City Council Priority – Leveraging Technology
- No discussion was held on this item.
Finance and Audit – FY2024 Audit Kickoff
- Councilmember Nikkie Hunter, Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, reported that the committee met with auditor Forvis. The audit timeline: planning and preliminary fieldwork August–September 2024; single audit testing November 2024–January 2025; final fieldwork January–March 2025; audit deliverables March 2025.
Municipal Policy – Unfinished Structures
- Councilmember Odom-Wesley reported on the committee meeting. The committee recommended adding unfinished structures to the city’s nuisance code with a 180-day grace period from the last building permit expiration before enforcement begins. Staff are to draft an ordinance for December consideration. Councilmember Boxall expressed concern about enforcement discretion and potential favoritism; staff clarified that the ordinance sets a standard but fines would be at the building official’s discretion. Councilmember Odom-Wesley and others emphasized that the goal is to encourage completion of long-dormant projects, such as the hotel on South Collins Street (7 years) and the townhouse development on Alicia Lane (4 years), both of which had owners present at the committee meeting.
Economic Development – Executive Session
- Councilmember Gonzalez reported that all matters from the Economic Development committee, including offers of incentives to business prospects, were discussed during executive session and no further action was taken.
Appointments to Boards and Commissions
- City Secretary Alex Busken noted 18 appointments are on the evening agenda for approval. Councilmember Odom-Wesley requested demographic data for the International Corridor board to ensure diversity.
Future Agenda Items
- Councilmember Boxall requested a future agenda item on 2026 World Cup preparations, covering transportation, security, trash removal, and other logistics. Council agreed to schedule an update.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were recorded; all discussions were preparatory for future decisions.
- Staff will return with options on council compensation (including possible brackets and deferral) for further deliberation before January 2025.
- The proposed charter cleanup amendments (Items 1–5) are anticipated to proceed, with possible addition of gender-neutral language, to be bundled as one proposition for the May 2025 election.
- Staff will draft an unfinished structures ordinance for December council consideration.
- An update on World Cup preparations will be added to a future agenda.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. And we're gonna go into a closed executive session. Something with those wisdom teeth out. Good afternoon. We're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session of the city council back to order. Let's see where we left off. Ms. Shorthall Oh, that's right. I was you just talked to me about this. So Mayor, I wanted to make one quick um introduction today. And I'm sorry, Miss Boxhall stepped out for just a second because it was really done for mostly for her attention, but she'll be right back, I'm sure. Here she comes. So Miss Boxall had contacted me a week or two ago and said that she had come up on an accident that occurred down on Center Street and near Mitchell, kind of just south of the College Park Center, and that she'd observed one of our employees doing something really, really helpful after that accident. A car had flipped over and was on its on its side or roof and had and then one of our employee cars came in and blocked blocked area so that no further accident could happen while people got out to assist. So we were trying to figure out you know who uh who that person was. So I want to introduce to y'all real quick. Actually, one of our newer employees. Uh his name is Jacob Haime. And if you can stand up, Jacob. He's one of our landscape techs, works in our parks and recreation department and is helping uh work on forestry and beautification. And on this day, he came across this accident and went outside his job scope and helped out somebody who had some need. So I told Ms. Boxhall we'd find who it was, and we'd uh we'd let him know we appreciated his efforts and told him to come on up here for a quick introduction, and um, here's who helped us out that day. So welcome. Okay, Ms. Shortall, now we're gonna go to you. Okay. Um council's request, we're bringing to you a discussion that municipal policy committee's been having over the past couple meetings on a potential charter amendment election. So I want to start with just a little bit of a primer on the charter with a little bit of a history lesson. So in 1912, Texas voters approved uh an amendment to the Texas Constitution that authorized cities to adopt a home rule charter. Prior to 1912, Texas just had one type of city, and we'll talk about the difference here in a minute: general law cities. So in 1912, cities with a population of 5,000 or more were able to bring forward a charter and um become a chartered home rule city. Got some bolded language here from that amendment, and it just notes that a charter can't be amended more often or then every two years. So shortly after that, about eight years later, uh the voters of Arlington approved the city of Arlington's home rule charter at an election held in 1920. So as I mentioned, currently two types of cities in Texas, they're general law cities and home rule cities. The distinction here is that general law cities have to look to the state legislature to determine their powers, so they look to the state to grant them those powers. Whereas home rule cities look to the legislature not for that grant of power, but for the limitations on their power. So preempted subject matters or areas of regulation. Well, uh home rule charter is basically the city's constitution. It's the fundamental law of the home rule city, broadly frames the powers of the city, talks about how the government of the city is structured. Is it a council mayor form of government? Or like the city of Arlington, is it a council manager form of government? Arlington's charter specifically lays out that we are a council manager form of government. The mayor and council act as the legislative body and appoint the city manager who serves as the chief executive officer of the city. And then I note here that charter amendments, as I mentioned previously, charter can be amended every two years, but that has to be approved by the voters. So charter can only be changed by approval of the voters. And that can either happen through petition, so voters bringing forward a petition requesting a change to the charter, or through an amendment that's initiated by the council. So calling an election to amend certain provisions in the charter. So high-level overview of what's currently included in the city of Arlington's charter. This is kind of the table of content.
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