Early voting kicks off Tuesday morning, and voters can cast their ballots at polling locations countywide for Denton City Council seats in Districts 2 and 3.
Five candidates are vying for the two contested races: Nick Stevens and Brian Beck in District 2, and Suzi Rumohr, Margie Ellis and Karen DeVinney in District 3.
Of course, the Districts 2 and 3 seats aren’t the only issues for voters to determine during early voting — April 22-29 — and on the May 3 general election day. Several character amendments are also on the ballot for consideration.
The Denton charter amendments are as follows, according to the city’s website. The links offer glimpses of the sections that will be affected and how they will be updated:
- Proposition A: Shall the City Charter be amended to replace all instances of gendered language with non-gendered language?
- Proposition B: Shall the City Charter be amended to resolve conflicts with state law and modify vague or unclear language?
- Proposition C: Shall the term of the Municipal Judge be increased from two years to four years?
Proposition A would replace all instances of “he,” “his,” “him,” “he or she,” “his or her” in the charter with nongendered language, and “councilman” would be swapped out for “councilmember.” The proposal would also alter a sentence in Section 1 that currently states: “Whenever used in this Charter, a word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to include females, and, where applicable, to firms, partnerships, and corporations, as well as males.”
In Proposition B, the “vague or unclear language” relates to Article II, Section 2.04 on “Variances in Council,” Article III, Section 3.01(b) on the uniform election day and Article IV, Section 4.08, “Submission of Electors.”
In a September presentation on the municipal judge’s term length, staff pointed out that increasing the term from two to four years offers stability for the judge, continuity for staff and community, long-term planning and projects, and judicial independence. Other cities such as McAllen, Killeen, Frisco, Austin and El Paso offer four-year terms for municipal judges.
The city doesn’t anticipate any financial impact from implementing these changes if voters approve the propositions on May 3, according to the city’s website.
Last summer, the Denton City Council formed the citizen charter review committee but failed to reach consensus in early December on several major recommendations by committee members.
Those recommendations included eliminating the two at-large seats and converting the council from seven seats to eight seats, with each representing one district of the city and only the mayor seat as a citywide position.
Committee members claimed the proposals would offer residents better representation. They also said the changes would decrease the cost of running for an election, since a council candidate would have to bring their message to only one segment of the city instead of the entire city.
Council member Brandon Chase McGee, who supported the committee’s recommendations, called it “a way to negate the money.”
But city staff estimated it would cost up to $284,000, possibly as high as $584,000 — in addition to $109,700 annually — to convert the seats and hire a redistricting consultant to ensure the redrawn district maps followed state and federal laws.
Council member Joe Holland called eliminating two citywide seats “absolutely going backward.”
“We got retired people, educators, a truck driver [on council],” Holland told council members in December. “I don’t know how much more diversity we need.”