Marble Falls charter amendment propositions on Nov. 8 ballot

CONNIE SWINNEY • STAFF WRITER

MARBLE FALLS — Voters in Marble Falls will determine the fate of eight city charter amendment propositions that range from potentially expanding who is authorized to write checks for city business to whether the city should use staff resources to track down tax information on political candidates.

The propositions are on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election.

“It’s to update things. When the charter was written in the ‘80s, there was a slightly different way of doing business,” Assistant City Manager Caleb Kraenzel said. “Most of (the proposed amendments) are updating things for one reason or another.”

Those reasons include legal requirements or to make for a smoother process for the city, he added.

All of the propositions listed on the ballot state that the amendments “will revise the charter to be consistent with state law.”

The charter specifies legal duties of both the city staff and governmental body. The city of Marble Falls is a home-rule city with a city manager-council form of government.

Several of the proposed amendments involve city finance reporting and procedural requirements.

Voters will consider Propositions 3 and 4 involving the practice of writing and signing checks for city business, respectively.

Proposition 3 would give the city manager the option of choosing another employee to execute checks if he or she is not available.

“Currently, all checks require the signature of the city manager or the mayor (in the absence of the city manager). The payment of the city’s bills can be delayed when both the mayor and the city manager are not available,” according to the ballot language. “This amendment would allow an additional employee to sign checks.”

Proposition 4 would increase the dollar figure of checks that require an actual signature instead of a stamped or “facsimile” signature from $5,000 to $15,000.

“It sets a higher amount of check writing (dollar figure) that is the demarkation from what used to be a much lower amount to a more standard amount of common expenditures,” Kraenzel said.

Proposition 6 would determine whether certain employees would be required to be bonded if involved in handling city money.

A “bonded” designation guarantees city money being handled by a particular staff member is secured and available in the event a claim is filed against the city.

“The current charter language requires all employees to be bonded. That’s over a hundred employees,” Kraenzel said. “We have an additional bonding component that is an added cost to the city to bond an entire workforce. When in necessity, we really need to be bonding employees who handle cash or money. That’s 20 percent of the workforce. If we have the actual number of employees who handle money bonded, then our operating costs are lowered.”

Proposition 5 would change from monthly to bi-annually the requirement for the city manager to present financial reports to the city council to reduce the number of reports with an emphasis on the budget adoption period and budget amendments.

“A monthly report was done when bookkeeping was done on paper. Now, it’s (on) computers. Council members can now call the finance director, get an email,” Kraenzel said. “Information is a lot more accessible than it used to be so the formality of getting a monthly report is not necessary from the perspective the information is pretty much readily available on a daily basis.

“Making those (bi-annual reports) the two minimum required, and then anytime the council wants an update, we can put that on the agenda,” he added.

Proposition 8 would remove the section that requires a candidate for elective office not be in arrears in the payment of taxes or “other liabilities” due the city.

“If somebody is still in arrears (owes) on taxes, say it’s property taxes, it’s still going to be public record with the Burnet (County) Central Appraisal District where somebody in the community or a political opponent can bring to the public’s attention the fact that they’re in arrears,” Kraenzel said.

The ballot language for Proposition 8 states that the “meaning of ‘other liabilities’ is not clear, and the provision may not be enforceable in court.”

“What it removes is for the city as an organization to have that not be a legal requirement for the city to check the box (when a candidate submits an application) if somebody’s running for office,” he said.

In other words, city staff wouldn’t be required to verify if city council candidates were behind on taxes owed to the municipality.

Proposition 2 would remove the requirements for two readings during separate city council meetings of an ordinance as well as the publication of two notices of an ordinance related to the adoption of fees, franchises, public utility rates, or to impose penalties.

Even if Proposition 2 passes, the city council would still be required to have dual notices and readings of business pertaining to items such as elections, passage of budgets, and tax rates.

“Our current charter is a little bit more restrictive than what state law says. It says we have to have two readings (and public notices) for ordinances pertaining to election, budgets, and tax rates and then removing those fees, franchises, utility rates, ordinances to a single reading,” Kraenzel said. “The basic idea is simplification of government processes.

“(The council is) always going to have the option, process-wise, of doing more things in a public forum if they choose to,” he said.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE DETAILED BALLOT LANGUAGE

The following is the list of all the proposed Marble Falls charter amendments:

• Proposition 1 asks whether the charter should be amended to require newly elected or re-elected council members or mayor take the oath of office within 30 days of the election or the office becomes vacant. Currently, the charter does not have a mechanism whereby the office could be declared vacant.

• Proposition 2 asks whether the charter should be amended to change the requirements for two readings of an ordinance and publication of two notices of an ordinance to one reading and one publication of a notice, except as required by state law.

• Proposition 3 asks whether the charter should be amended to allow the city manager to designate an alternate city employee the authority to execute checks in the absence or unavailability of the city manager.

• Proposition 4 asks whether the language of the charter should be amended to allow facsimile signatures on the value of checks to be increased from $5,000 to $15,000.

• Proposition 5 amends the charter to provide that the city manager be required to present financial reports to the city council on a bi-annual basis instead of a monthly basis.

• Proposition 6 amends the charter to allow the city council the discretion to designate which officers and employees of the city that handle money need to be bonded instead of mandating that all officers and employees that handle money be required to provide a surety bond.

• Proposition 7 amends the charter to be consistent with state law to change the requirement for continuous employment of a city employee from two years to six months in order to allow the employee to remain employed by the city in the event a relative is elected as mayor or to the city council or from two years to 30 days if a relative is hired as the city manager or other appointing officer.

• Proposition 8 amends the charter by removing a section that requires that a candidate for elective office not be in arrears in the payment of taxes or other liabilities due the city. This amendment would revise the charter to be consistent with state law.

connie@thepicayune.com