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 B
Ballot Text: “To amend Article V, Section 2 of the Amarillo City Charter to provide for a 4-year term of office for Mayor and each City Councilmember with those terms being staggered as provided by ordinance and conforming amendments as required by state law.”
What It Means:
Presently, the Amarillo City Council and Amarillo Mayor serve two year terms, with all five members coming up for election every two years, in May of odd-numbered years. If this item is passed, the City Council’s terms will be extended to four years each, with two-to-three members coming up for election every two years, depending on the election cycle.
Here is a look at arguments for and against Proposition B. Please note, there is no organized campaign against Proposition B 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 Citizens Charter Review Committee has determined that a two-year term of office with the potential for loss of all council knowledge of issues in a single election is a modern disservice to the community. A councilmember spends the first year learning governmental organization, programs, laws, and procedures. Currently this leaves only a single year of informed service, and then that term of office is over. This fact is compounded by the possibility that an entirely new Counsel and Mayor can be elected in one election cycle, due to the lack of staggered terms. Accordingly, the Citizens Charter Review Committee recommends a longer term of office to make better use of the skills and knowledge acquired by the Mayor and Councilmembers and that staggered terms be implemented to assure a smooth and informed transition of govemmental leadership, rather than removal of all incumbents and knowledge in a single election.
AGAINST Proposition B - Submitted by Save Amarillo PAC
Website: SaveAmarilloNow.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaveAmarilloPAC
It is the civic duty of voters to hold those both seeking and holding elected office accountable. Prop B directly harms the ability of voters to uphold this civic duty by doubling term lengths. At no other point in Amarillo’s history has such an amendment to our city charter been seriously considered. Additionally, key provisions about the implementation of this measure, such as if it will be retroactive or how the elections will be staggered, have not even been worked out yet.