Photo by Noah Dawson
Mayor Cole Stanley defended the charter amendments set to appear on the November ballot during a press conference last week at City Hall.
The Amarillo Pioneer specifically asked voters are again being asked to vote on four-year staggered terms for the council despite rejecting the proposal in 2020.
“A lot of it is in messaging,” said Stanley. “We’re not asking you to trust us, what we’re asking you to do is listen.” Stanley then went on to tout the benefits he sees in the proposal. “We really need and drastically need staggered terms. Otherwise, we have the inability to have any continuity moving forward.”
Stanley also spoke about his support for adding two new seats to the council. “If you add two additional council members, it makes it super easy for us to stagger terms,” said the Mayor.
In addition to four-year terms and adding two council members, voters will decide on proposals to modify the process for recalling elected officials and filling council vacancies.
The Amarillo Pioneer also asked about amendments not placed on the ballot. Specifically, we inquired why the council did not propose moving city council elections to November.
“So, I know for myself, I’ve never been in favor of trying to move the elections to November,” said Stanley. “I’ve always been in the position of, you know what, May is where we’re at, and I think that we have bigger problems to focus on.”
His answer, however, appears to be at odds with what he told The Amarillo Pioneer during his campaign in 2023. As part of our voter guide questionnaire, we asked all candidates for city office if they supported moving municipal elections to November of even-numbered years. Below is Stanley’s full answer:
“Yes. It would increase the number of voters that we have turnout and improve upon our representative government.”
Councilmen Josh Craft, Don Tipps, and Tom Scherlen all gave similar answers during their campaigns. The only council member who specifically opposed moving city elections to November was Councilman Les Simpson, who said he didn’t “see any problem with the current date.”
If any of the proposed amendments on this year’s ballot pass, the city will be locked out of making any other changes to the charter for two years.