Wylie council orders May 3 charter amendment election, approves county election services contract

The Wylie City Council on Feb. 11 voted unanimously to order a special election on May 3, 2025, to submit proposed amendments to the city's home-rule charter and approved a contract for election services with the Collin County Elections Administrator.

City Secretary Miss Storm told the council that the agenda packet included 26 proposed propositions and an Exhibit A showing each proposed change with underlines for additions and strike-throughs for deletions, and that Exhibit B contains the ballot language voters will see. "Included in the agenda packet is the 26 proposed propositions for the May 3, charter amendment election," she said. She asked the council to approve a cleaned-format version of the resolution to correct spacing errors in the packet.

The charter amendments include changes to make gender-specific language gender-neutral and to update verbiage to align the charter with current state law, according to Miss Storm. She said the city would work with the counties to print informational material at polling sites and post the materials on the city's website.

Mayor Pro Tem Tim Jeff Forrester asked whether the city would use utility bills and social media to drive traffic to the explanatory materials. "Will we in addition help to drive traffic to the website from the water bills or from all of our social media sites, etcetera, to ensure that there's much transparency and as much communication along these changes, propositions will go to the public prior to the vote on May?" he asked. Miss Storm replied that the office would work with city staff to post information but could not advocate for any proposition.

The council approved Resolution No. 2025-03R ordering the special election by a 7-0 vote. The council then approved Resolution No. 2025-04R, authorizing the city manager to execute a joint general and special election services contract with the Collin County Elections Administrator to administer the May 3 Wylie general and special elections, also by a 7-0 vote. City staff said contracts with Dallas County and Rockwall County would be brought to a future meeting for approval.

City staff said Collin County polling locations will include Collin College's Wylie campus and the Wylie Community Center (formerly the Wylie Senior Center); residents may also vote at any polling location in Collin County on Election Day. The city plans to post the propositions and related explanatory documents on its website and make printed materials available at polling sites.

Votes at a glance: the council approved the consent agenda 7-0; adopted Resolution No. 2025-03R ordering the May 3, 2025 special election 7-0; and adopted Resolution No. 2025-04R authorizing the Collin County election contract 7-0.

The council concluded regular business and recessed for an executive session; no further public action on the charter or election contract was taken at that time.