The McKinney city council asked for more time in office — but voters appear to have shut that down.
With 112 out of 117 voting centers reporting late Tuesday, almost 51.2% of voters opposed Proposition A, which would have increased council members’ term limits from two consecutive four-year terms to three. And almost 56% of voters opposed bumping council members’ pay to a monthly stipend of $750 and the mayor’s pay to $1,000 a month.
Almost 74.2% of voters favored Propositon C and almost 73% favored Proposition D. The propositions will amend the city charter to comply with new state laws that have been passed since the last charter amendment election in 2019 and remove provisions and policies the city no longer follows.
The city council put the propositions on the ballot earlier this year. The term limit extension would’ve applied to current council. The pay raise would only have applied to future council members.
Tom Michero, who founded the Keep McKinney Unique PAC to oppose the term limit proposition, said the charter amendment was self-serving. Michero’s PAC raised over $5,000 to oppose the term limit extensions.
“It just doesn’t pass the smell test,” he said.
The current city charter allows elected officials to serve eight years as a council member and another eight years as mayor after a year break. Proposition A would’ve increased that to twelve years in each position.
McKinney Mayor George Fuller is about to finish his second term. Critics of the term limit extensions said it was put on the ballot to give Fuller another term. But the mayor told KERA before the election he wasn’t sure if he’d run again. He is eligible to run for a city council seat. Fuller told KERA he wouldn’t decide to run for office until the January deadline to declare candidacy.
Fuller said term limits should be determined by voters. Several incumbents in Collin County and the state of Texas have served more than two terms.
“We're able to vote for who we believe is the best candidate, and it's not suppressed by an arbitrary number of terms,” he said.
Bridgette Wallis, who writes the McKinney Citizen to Citizen blog, said allowing members three terms in each seat would decrease diversity.
“The longer the establishment is in charge, the less they will be looking for new ideas and perspectives,” she said.
Wallis and Michero both said they support adding term limits to other elected positions.
Michero said turnover at the city council allows for new ideas and increased participation in local government. He also said the term limits are about more than the current council.
“What happens if we don’t have a good city council in the future?” Michero said.
But A.J. Micheletto, a volunteer with the Citizens for McKinney PAC, said consistent leadership is key for the growing city. McKinney is the county seat of Collin County, the third-fastest-growing county in the nation according to the U.S. Census. McKinney has 213,509 residents as of July 2023 according to Census data — about 100,000 more than the city’s population in 2010.
Micheletto said McKinney needs leaders who have experience tackling the impact of growth on local infrastructure and government services.
“It’s important for our leadership to understand and have a forward future plan so that we can grow in the best and most mindful way possible,” she said.
Michero said the electorate should decide the future direction of the city, not the council members.
“Growth needs to be managed, and it needs to be managed by the will of the people,” he said. “And if there’s an incumbent that gets into office and is not listening to the will of the people, then that’s not going to be good for the city.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News.
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