At yesterday’s City Council meeting, they decided which Charter Amendments will be on the November 2026 ballot.
Here is what the result is:
A) clarifying that the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission is independent of Council control, allowing the ICRC to review City districts after changes to the City’s boundary lines, providing an effective date for the redistricting plan adopted by the ICRC, increasing the number of individuals in the pool of potential appointees to the ICRC, clarifying the method and timing of filling vacancies on the ICRC, and allowing City staff to communicate with the ICRC outside of a meeting;
Approved
B) deleting language providing that the Council shall meet at least once each week;
Approved as amended (CM Alter Amendment)
C) deleting language requiring the Council to determine its rules and order of business by ordinance;
Approved
D) clarifying the meaning of the term “election” and to provide that the campaign contribution and expenditure limits shall be modified each year by January 1st instead of with the adoption of the budget;
Approved
E) providing that initiative elections and petitioned charter amendment elections must be held on the next available November election date that occurs in an even-numbered year and that allows sufficient time to comply with other requirements of law;
Approved
F) providing that a petition for an election to recall a Council Member other than the Mayor must contain valid signatures of at least 15% of the qualified voters of the respective Council district, instead of the current 10%, and clarifying that the affidavit on the recall petition must be signed by a petition circulator;
Failed (Mayor Watson’s Motion to Amend passed but the Item ultimately failed – Watson Amendment)
G) providing that the Council appoints and removes the City Attorney;
Approved
H) making the time frame for the automatic resignation provision for municipal court judges the same as that provided in the Texas Constitution for other officials;
Failed
I) ensure that City financial practices are consistent with generally accepted accounting principles, reflect current practices for appropriations for department-level work programs;
Failed
J) removing appointees and employees of the office of the City Auditor from the classified civil service;
Failed for lack of a motion
K) making non-substantive corrections of typographical errors, punctuation, and sentence structure, and to change or remove language that is moot or unenforceable because it has been superseded by state law or by a final court order;
Approved
L) removing the restriction that officeholders must wait until after leaving office to solicit and accept political contributions to pay unpaid campaign expenses or to reimburse campaign expenditures made from personal funds and to impose contribution limits on such officeholders;
Failed for lack of a motion
Save Austin Now Charter Amendment -
M) requiring an independent affordability and efficiency initiative before any tax rate increase and requiring the independent contractor to identify annual and multi-year savings;
Approved
- - -
This means our Outside Audit Charter Amendment should be Prop I at the end of the ballot.
Next up: Ballot language will be approved by Council.
SUPPORT OUR OUTSIDE AUDIT EFFORT
FINANCIAL SUPPORT NEEDED: PLEASE DONATE TO OUR EFFORTS
We absolutely need your financial support.
We have to be ready to:
Legally challenge any biased ballot language immediately in court
Run the campaign to pass the Audit charter amendment!
Ways to Give:
ONLINE: You can securely contribute online here.
BY CHECK: You can make a check to “Save Austin Now PAC” and mail it to:
807 Brazos Street
Suite 306
Austin, TX 78701
VENMO: @saveaustinnow
WIRE: If you wish to send a wire, please email Matt.
As we have said before, WE HAVE ONLY BEGUN TO FIGHT!
THANK YOU.
-Save Austin Now PAC
Pol. ad. paid for by Save Austin Now PAC. Leland Bickers, Treasurer. SaveAustinNowPAC.com
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