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Arlington to ask voters' approval to city's charter changes next May

Cars zoom past city hall April 30, 2024, in Arlington.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Cars zoom past Arlington City Hall earlier this year. Arlington City Council is expected to ask voters to approve changes to the city's charter.

Arlington leaders are expected to ask voters next year to make changes to the city's charter, including runoff elections, city polling places and the way the city takes out bonds.

Council member Barbara Odom-Wesley said during a council work session Tuesday afternoon that the charter amendments are necessary to realign language to match state law. The last revisions to the charter were in November 2022.

For bonds, two sections of the charter would change.

One portion would be updated to say that the city can issue bonds for any purpose, so long as it is within the bounds of state law.

Another modification would see the city remove the requirement for the mayor to assemble a committee of 12 Arlington residents who are legal voters and taxpayers to approve bonds. The change would see the requirement removed from the charter without replacing it with new rules.

The proposed changes to the charter would see city rules on runoff elections updated, changing the requirement from holding the election between 10 and 30 days after the regular election is complete to simply being “held in accordance with state law.”

State law says the Texas Secretary of State sets the date for runoff elections.

This year, the secretary of state required runoffs for May 5 municipal elections be held on June 15.

The current plan would see the city council give initial approval to the changes on Jan. 28, 2025, and call for an election to get voter approval for the changes on Feb. 11, 2025. Arlington voters would cast ballots on May 3 with early voting from April 21 to April 29.

James Hartley is the Arlington Government Accountability reporter for KERA.