Fulshear charter panel to weigh three-year terms and new term limits for mayor and council

Fulshear's mayor and City Council members could one day serve three-year terms instead of two. The city's Charter Review Commission will take up draft amendments that would make that change, along with a new term-limits section and a rewrite of how council vacancies are filled, at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at the Fulshear Municipal Complex, 6611 W. Cross Creek Bend Lane.

The city charter works like Fulshear's local constitution. It sets up the council, the mayor's job and the city's top staff positions. The commission has been going through it section by section. At its Sept. 24 meeting it reviewed Articles III and IV, from council qualifications through the chief financial officer, and made notes on changes it wanted to see later. The packet for Oct. 26, posted Oct. 20, now includes draft amendment language for several of those sections.

Longer terms

Right now the charter gives the mayor and all seven council members two-year terms. The draft strikes "two-year" and replaces it with "three-year" in both Section 3.03, which covers council members, and Section 3.04, which covers the mayor. Nothing else in those sections changes. Council would still have two at-large seats and five district seats, all elected by majority vote.

Term limits in one place

The charter already says no one can serve more than three consecutive terms as mayor or as a council member, with partial terms not counted. The draft deletes that sentence from both sections and creates a new Section 3.04.1 with more detailed rules:

• Mayor and council member are separate offices, and all seven council seats, at-large or district, count as one office.
• No one can serve more than three consecutive terms in either office.
• No one can serve more than six consecutive terms in the two offices combined.
• Serving any part of a term counts as a full term, unless the person was appointed to fill an unexpired term.
• Someone who reaches a limit has to sit out at least one year before being elected or appointed to that office again.

That fourth rule is a real shift. Under the current wording, partial terms don't count at all. Under the draft, someone elected to a term who leaves early would still be charged with a full term.

Filling vacancies

The draft also rewrites Section 3.10. Today, if one seat on the council is empty, the remaining members can fill it by appointment. If two or more are empty at once, the city has to call a special election.

The new language would require a special election for any council vacancy, for the rest of the unexpired term. The exception is a vacancy with 12 months or less left. In that case council could appoint someone by majority vote, leave the seat for the next regular election or call a special election.

That change lines up with the Texas Constitution. Article XI, Section 11 lets a home-rule city like Fulshear set terms longer than two years, up to four. But a city that does so must fill council vacancies by special election within 120 days, not by appointment, unless the charter sets its own process for terms with 12 months or less remaining.

Two smaller items about the mayor

The commission will also look at two changes to Section 3.08, the mayor's powers. One would require City Council approval before the mayor removes a member of a city board or commission. The current text says the mayor may remove them "at any time." The other adds that the mayor's annual State of the City address has to be given at a properly posted city council meeting that's open to the public.

The commission is also scheduled to keep working through Articles IV through VIII, starting with Section 4.08 on the chief financial officer, and to set future meeting dates.

What happens next

Nothing changes yet. These are drafts on the agenda for "consideration and possible action." Under Chapter 9 of the Texas Local Government Code, City Council decides whether to put proposed charter amendments on a ballot, and each amendment has to be a single subject that voters can approve or reject on its own. An amendment takes effect only if a majority of Fulshear voters approve it and council then enters an order declaring it adopted. The Texas Constitution also says a city charter can't be amended more often than once every two years.

The packet doesn't say when an election might be held, and the commission hasn't finished its review.

Residents who want to speak can do so during citizen comments at the start of the meeting, with a three-minute limit per speaker. The meeting agenda and the full packet with the draft language are posted on the city's public meetings portal.