Quarquay council launches comprehensive charter review, hires consultant to guide process

Quarquay ' On Oct. 2, 2023, the Quarquay City Council voted to begin a formal review of the city's home-rule charter and to hire a consultant to help produce specific amendment language for council consideration and possible ballot placement.

City staff presented a list of roughly 30 charter issues identified in earlier reviews and noted that the current charter has not been comprehensively revised since the 1960s. Staff said recent state legislative changes and court rulings have created compliance gaps the city needs to fix.

"This is the minimum requirements and guidelines," a staff member said of the charter, arguing the document should be updated so it remains a reliable foundation for city operations. The council then introduced consultant Don Edmonds, who described a recommended process.

Edmonds, who said he has worked on dozens of municipal charters over 25'plus years, recommended the council appoint a roughly 13-member Charter Review Commission; hold approximately six commission meetings spread over about three months (an organizational meeting followed by regular sessions); and require staff or the city attorney to report on the charter's condition at least every five years. "The Charter Commission has no ability whatsoever to adopt any of their ideas," Edmonds said; the commission's role is to study, draft language, and return recommendations to the council.

Edmonds told the council he expected the resulting ballot package could contain a large number of discrete propositions ("maybe 30 or even 35 ballot propositions") because decades of isolated amendments and legislative changes have accumulated. He recommended the council appoint commissioners and select one appointee to serve as chair to avoid an awkward internal election and to speed the work.

Council and staff discussed scheduling. Staff suggested the council identify members within a week and, if necessary, call a special meeting to appoint commissioners so the commission could begin meeting on a staggered schedule (suggested second- and fourth-Monday slots) and deliver a report in time to order ballots. Edmonds said the commission's recommendations would then come back to the council, which would decide which, if any, items to place before voters.

Council then voted to adopt a resolution authorizing a formal charter review process, hiring a consultant to assist the Charter Review Commission, and directing staff to move forward with appointments and schedule options aimed at the next feasible election cycle.

What happens next: Councilors are expected to identify and appoint the commission within days after the Oct. 2 meeting; the commission will hold organizational meetings and draft specific charter language that the council will accept, reject, or modify before any proposed changes go to voters.

Authority cited: the resolution references Local Government Code section 9.004 as the statutory basis for the process.

Details and clarifications: Edmonds recommended a five-year reporting requirement to keep the charter under periodic review; the commission itself makes recommendations only and cannot enact charter changes; staff noted the charter contains an owner-of-real-estate requirement for council members that staff described as constitutionally problematic and in need of revision.

The resolution passed after a motion, a second and a vote recorded as "all in favor; motion carries." No roll-call vote tally was recorded in the meeting transcript.