Editor’s note: This profile is included in the Amarillo Pioneer’s 2020 Voter Guide, available here. For profiles on all of the candidates and issues on the ballot in the November election, please check out our Voter Guide and get informed before you head to the polls.
Photo by City of Amarillo
City of Amarillo Proposition C
Ballot Text: “To amend Article V, Section 12(a) of the Amarillo City Charter to provide for the Mayor and Councilmembers to meet to qualify for office on the day of the election canvass and thereafter meet not less than twenty-four times per calendar year.”
What It Means:
Presently, the Amarillo City Council meets every week for its regularly scheduled meeting. If this item passes, the City Council will have to fulfill half of its current meeting requirements, with officials saying this change ideally would lead to meetings every two weeks instead of every week.
Here is a look at arguments for and against Proposition C. Please note, there is no organized campaign against Proposition C at the time of the Amarillo Pioneer Voter Guide’s publication, so information in support of this item has been taken from excerpts of the Amarillo City Council’s resolution calling the election.
FOR Proposition B - Excerpted from Amarillo City Council documents
The current charter requires weekly City Council meetings, yet modern experience is that, in some weeks or months, there is not enough public business to justify a weekly meeting. At other times, a quorum of council members is unavailable, rendering a weekly meeting a legal impossibility. In other seasons, pressing business can require multiple meetings within a single week. Aside from the variable workload, modern societal practices of taking holidays and personal time off by council and senior staff further are different than in 1913, and can be incompatible with a weekly meeting obligation. The Citizen Charter Review Committee determined it is desirable for the charter to assure regular meetings while allowing reasonable flexibility for the frequency of those meetings. That Committee recommends setting a required total number of meetings per year will assure regular meetings while providing flexibility to not meet in some weeks.
AGAINST Proposition B - Submitted by Save Amarillo PAC
Website: SaveAmarilloNow.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaveAmarilloPAC
Next to elections, public meetings are among the most important ways for the people of Amarillo to let their voices be heard by their elected officials. Unfortunately, Prop C cuts the number of opportunities for concerned residents to communicate directly with their government. The proposition could also slow our city’s ability to respond to economic issues such as zoning, putting our city at a competitive disadvantage. We are not convinced that politicians wanting more “personal time,” which is one of the main reasons given for this proposition, is worth making our government less accountable.