AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- After spending much of Tuesday working on ballot language for potential charter amendments for the May 1 election, the Austin City Council failed to reach a consensus Friday on even considering to add a potential 12th council seat in order to maintain an odd number of members on the dais.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler had called for a special meeting of the council to take place Friday night at 9:45 p.m., with a single agenda item for council to consider an additional charter amendment to be placed on the May 1 ballot that would create a potential 12th council district, "if necessary to maintain an odd number of voting council members."
However, in an ongoing discussion thread on the city's online Council message board, several council members rejected the idea of a late-night special meeting, indicating that either the measure would not have the support it would need, or that a quorum would not even be present at the meeting. Adler ended up canceling the meeting Friday morning, hours before it was set to begin.
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Based on the ballot language that was approved by council on Tuesday, there is a scenario where the amendment creating a "strong mayor" form of government could be rejected by voters in May, but an amendment adding what would be the 11th council district could be approved - which would end up putting an even 12 voting members on the council dais beginning after the 2022 election cycle, creating the possibility of a 6-6 deadlocked tie.
Currently, under the city's "10-1" system, the 10 single district council members plus the mayor give an opportunity for 11 votes on the dais when all members are present.
Council members Alter, Kitchen, and Pool were among those against the late-night meeting. "While we appreciate our colleagues’ interest in discussing these latest ideas, we believe such a meeting and course of action would further undermine public confidence in how we make decisions as a Council," Alter wrote on the message board in a statement attributed to all three.
There were two reasons for the late night start to the meeting. First, under state law, all items for the May 1 ballot had to be ordered by council no later than midnight on Friday. Secondly, under the state's open meeting rules, the city has to post notice of all meetings with their agenda at least 72 hours prior to their start time.
Newly-elected District 2 council member Vanessa Fuentes, in a post on the City Council's online message board, led the request for the special meeting. "As an effort to avoid the unintended consequence of gridlock on policy issues moving forward, I ultimately think it’s worth the conversation of adding an additional council district to maintain the majority vote on council," Fuentes wrote. "This would also serve well for increased representation in our city."
Council members Ellis, Casar, Harper-Madison, and Mayor Steve Adler joined in supporting Fuentes' request.
The third limitation facing council members is that Texas state law says cities can only amend their charter every two years. If any of the charter amendments on the May 1 ballot are approved by voters, the next earliest opportunity to seek changes to the charter will be in May 2023.