Charter Review Commission gives interim report proposing longer mayoral term and study of single-member districts

The Charter Review Commission presented an interim summary of recommendations and told the San Marcos City Council it expects to deliver a final report by May.

Commission Chair John Tomaitis said the seven-member commission has met six times in a concentrated schedule and has debated a range of changes to the city charter. He told councilmembers the commission's preliminary recommendations include increasing the mayor's term from two years to four years (with an allowance for two consecutive terms followed by a two-year break), studying and educating the public about single-member districts rather than placing them immediately on the ballot, and raising the filing window and verification period for referendum petitions.

Tomaitis said the commission's single largest substantive discussion centered on single-member districts. "We had lengthy conversation," he said, and the commission concluded it did not have consensus to place a single-member district proposal on the ballot; five commissioners favored first educating the public and the council about the process before considering ballot placement.

Other preliminary recommendations Tomaitis identified included: reducing the number of council meetings from 22 to 20; limiting video-conference participation by a council member to three meetings per year (with exemptions for emergencies and excused absences); requiring minutes to be presented and voted on at the following meeting; clarifying printed-code sale language to reflect cost recovery rather than profit; increasing time to file a referendum petition from 30 to 90 days and increasing clerk verification from 45 to 60 days; proposing a form of financial disclosure for referendum or initiative funding; reducing residency requirements for Planning and Zoning Commission members from five years to three years; and reorganizing charter sections to move ethics provisions into a titled article.

Tomaitis also paid tribute to the commission's late vice chair, Jim Garber, and described Garber's role in the commission's election and planning discussions. Tomaitis said a final report with redline language and individual roll-call votes on recommended charter amendments will be presented to council at a future meeting and that council retains the final authority to decide which items go to the ballot.

Ending: The commission plans to finish its work this month; the council and public will receive the final redline proposals and a roll-call record of each recommended charter amendment before any ballot action.