The City of Dallas is among a number of cities considering amendments to its City Charter.
Nearby Denton also has a Charter Review Committee busy at work considering possible amendments.
The Denton Charter Review Committee recently began considering expanding the number of city council seats and eliminating at-large seats, as reported by KERA News. The decision entails changing the two at-large council seats into single-member district seats. At-large council seats are elected by all city voters, whereas district seats are only elected by voters in that particular district. A decision was tabled until the August 22 meeting.
The Denton Record-Chronicle reports on the latest Denton Charter Review Committee meeting. Here’s the start of the story:
The Denton City Council’s Charter Review Committee voted Thursday evening not to recommend extending the two-year length of council terms, but delayed a decision on making changes to the current makeup of the council.
Committee Chair Kristine Bray said that because a majority of the full voting body was not present Thursday, a recommendation to change how council is structured, adjusting the at-large and single-member district representatives, will come back for review at the next meeting.
Committee members were discussing whether to change two of the three seats from representing the whole city at large to representing one district of the city — citing, in part, the cost-effectiveness of campaigning in only one district and the ability to offer better representation and accountability measures for council members.
Those who supported the current council makeup worried that turning the at-large seats — elected by all Denton voters — into seats representing smaller areas of the city would mean council members might ignore constituents outside of their districts.