Whitehouse reviewers favor two-year council terms, recommend aligning charter with Texas law

At a Whitehouse Charter Review Group meeting, legal counsel reviewed a draft Home Rule charter and urged the group to remove or tighten provisions that conflict with Texas law while commissioners debated term length, qualifications and conflict-of-interest rules.

The attorney advising the review said the state "provides them all their authority and tells them what they can do," and recommended the commission avoid repeating detailed statutory procedures in the charter where state law already governs. The consultant advised keeping a short Home Rule statement and using the charter mainly as a teaching and organizational document rather than a place to reprint detailed state procedures.

The discussion centered on several policy areas the draft touches: the city’s powers and the council-manager form of government, annexation and disannexation rules, how and whether the city manager should recommend appointments (city attorney, municipal judge, city secretary), staff protections for reporting misconduct, and candidate qualifications. The attorney noted recent state…