Austin voters could decide this November whether to make it harder to recall City Council members, rewrite the rules for citizen-led ballot measures and give the council the power to hire and fire the city attorney. The proposals are part of a sweeping package of proposed City Charter amendments that could reshape how City Hall operates.
Austin was supposed to have a charter election in 2024. But the city canceled it just three months before Election Day after a Travis County district judge issued a temporary court order that halted the city from placing the amendments on the ballot. That’s because the judge found that the city had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when it called the election.
The council’s Audit and Finance Committee discussed the possible charter election at the end of May before council went on break. Committee members will decide whether to recommend an election to the full council at their next meeting on July 22.
Council Member Ryan Alter, who sponsored the 2023 request for the charter amendment, said he wants to discuss whether council members should be allowed to initiate elections. That power is currently reserved for residents through a public petition process.
Alter said the change could give council members a useful way to ask voters to weigh in on policy questions, but he warned that it also could let elected officials dodge responsibility or put unproductive measures on the ballot.
“That could be a benefit, [or it] could be abused,” he said.
He also pointed to his recent initiative to add solar to city facilities and said the city has hit roadblocks while trying to put solar installation on parks because of city land-use rules.
A 2019 city auditor’s report found that most peer cities require more signatures for citizen initiatives than Austin does. Austin was the only peer city reviewed that had both a set number of required signatures to propose a new law and a percentage requirement.
The report found that Austin’s 20,000 signature requirement represented about 3% of Austin voters at the time and “will continue to be a lower percentage as the city grows.”
The same 2019 audit also compared Austin to other major cities in Texas on the percentage of voters required to recall a sitting City Council member. The report found Austin’s existing 10% requirement matched San Antonio’s but was lower than Dallas’ 15% threshold; Fort Worth’s and El Paso’s 20% requirements; and Houston’s requirement of signatures equal to 25% of votes cast in the last mayoral election.