Charter Review Committee outlines 42 amendments to bring Ennis charter into alignment with state law

Scott Haney, chair of the Charter Review Committee, summarized the committee’s work and presented a package of 42 proposed amendments to the city charter aimed at clarity, compliance and transparency. The proposed changes include correcting archaic references (for example, replacing "council" with "city commission"), aligning residency requirements with state law (changing a two‑year residency requirement to 12 months where state law requires), and clarifying the vote threshold required to win an election (explicitly stating a majority, 50.1%).

Haney walked the commission through a series of propositions addressing quorum language, term limits, thresholds for recall and referendum, filling vacancies, creating an adopted code of ethics ordinance, emergency powers and administrative clarifications. "We tried to make some amendments to change the length of terms for city commissioners to stagger elections and then to implement... term limits," Haney said, and explained that several changes were intended strictly to bring the charter into compliance with state law.

The commission discussed timing and next steps: staff will present an order of election at the August 4 special meeting (or August 18 regular meeting if more time is needed), and the committee will host town halls to educate the public ahead of a potential November ballot. No final vote on the charter package was taken at this meeting; commissioners will formally consider acceptance of the committee’s recommendations in a future agenda item.