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HARLINGEN — Two years ago, city commissioners proposed amendments to the City Charter leading to sweeping changes, including setting term limits, pushing the city’s May elections to November and cutting the mayor’s power to appoint members to the prominent board of directors overseeing Valley International Airport.
During the next year, a group of residents is being charged with planning propositions for the city’s next election set for November 2024, in which three commission seats are also up for grabs.
Last week, commissioners agreed to form the city’s first charter review committee since 2006, with members called upon to revise the city’s constitution, proposing any amendments before commissioners order them placed on the ballot.
Launching year-long process
So far, commissioners haven’t discussed any changes to the charter.
“We want the community involved in the conversation,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said in an interview. “Ultimately, the commission will decide what will get on the ballot, if anything at all.”
Meanwhile, commissioners are planning to guide the committee during the year-long process, Commissioner Rene Perez said.
“We want to give the committee guidance. We need to make suggestions,” he said in an interview. “We’re all going to study the charter. We’re going to look at the charter and see if there’s something we want to change.”
Commission seeks residents’ input
During a July 19 meeting, commissioners agreed to form a seven-member committee, with each commissioner picking a member while Sepulveda names two members.
While commissioners proposed charter amendments for the May 2022 election ballot, now they’re forming the first review committee since the city’s last charter revision in 2006.
“There have been things placed on the ballot previously, obviously, between then and now but it was kind of just piecemeal, the commission on its own deciding this is what we want to put on the ballot,” Sepulveda told commissioners.
Sepulveda, who called on commissioners to form the committee, suggested residents help determine whether the city makes any changes to the charter.
“The charter really governs what we do,” she said. “We need to make sure we’re including the community and not just placing things on the ballot as a commission. It gives the community an opportunity to participate in the process.”
How it works
During discussion, members of the commission agreed each commissioner would make an appointment while Sepulveda would name two members.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Daniel Lopez opposed Sepulveda’s suggestion a commissioner also serve on the committee.
“It keeps us kind of out of it,” he said, referring to the committee’s selection of proposals. “I don’t want any of us accused of anything.”
As part of commissioners’ selection of the committee, criteria requires members be at least 18 years old, live within the city limits or own a business or property here.
The committee, whose members commissioners are set to appoint by next month, will hold monthly meetings aimed at reviewing the charter before presenting commissioners with its report in August 2024, officials said.
Upon the committee’s presentation of its report, commissioners will determine whether they place any proposals on the election’s ballot.
Background
In the November 2024 election, Perez’s District 5 seat along with Commissioner Michael Mezmar’s District 3 seat and Commissioner Frank Morales’ District 4 seat are up for grabs.
In 2021, the city’s past commission began working to propose amendments to the charter.
In a May 2022 special election, residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of an amendment limiting the mayor’s and commissioners’ tenures to four, three-year terms while pushing the city’s May elections to November beginning in 2024.
As part of a third proposition, residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of an amendment creating a seven-member airport board, allowing each commissioner to make an appointment to the board while the mayor appoints two members.
Since 2006, the charter gave the mayor sole power to appoint members to the prominent board, which had been made up of nine members.
