Voters in one Bexar County municipality will have more to consider on the upcoming Nov. 5 general election ballot than any other.
Schertz, a 33-square-mile city in the shape of a letter S scrawled across the booming northeastern corridor, is holding a special election on charter amendments.
Based on the recommendations of a council-appointed, 11-member charter review commission, Schertz City Council members placed 15 measures on the ballot alongside two council seats.
(For comparison, the City of San Antonio has placed six measures on the ballot for voters to decide.)
The last time Schertz, with a population of 45,000, revised its charter was in 2015. The council considered the propositions in June and called for the election in July.
“Cities will typically review their charter every five years or so, and we’ve gone just a little bit beyond that,” said Schertz City Manager Steve Williams, who joined the staff almost two years ago from the City of Conroe.
At least two of the proposed amendments address changes in state law, which always supersedes a city charter, Williams said. The first one is fairly straightforward and simplifies the language around extending the boundary of the city through annexation, stating that annexations shall be in accordance with state law.
The other has to do with process. Voters are being asked whether the charter should be amended to remove the signing of plats, or legal documents showing plots for a housing subdivision, from the list of official documents required to be signed by the mayor.
“A lot of the state laws … are trying to speed things up for the development process [because] a lot of things slow it down,” Williams said. “Let’s just let the staff approve it and … move on. It’s a checklist requirement-type deal.”
Proposition B on the ballot also poses a change to the notification area for disannexations, or removing an area from the municipality’s boundaries, from 200 feet to 1,000 feet of the area, and requires the city to hold a public hearing within 30 days of a proposed disannexation.
The commission also recommended an amendment that reduces the number of required referendum petition signatures from 15% to 10% of registered voters, and the signatures required for a recall petition from 20% to 15%.
Another proposition prevents the city’s council pay increases from becoming effective during the term of the council that approved it, and disallows future mayors and council mayors from working for the city as a part of city staff within two years of holding public office.
Proposition M recommends changing the charter to require a charter review every five years rather than periodically.
The charter review commission met for six months to discuss proposed changes.
“I felt that everybody came to a consensus based upon common sense and the ability to see what was best for our city at this time,” said Dana Eldridge, commission chairman.
But Eldridge was out of town when the amendments were presented to council and was surprised to learn how many measures would be on the ballot. “Fifteen? I didn’t know we did that much,” he said.
To read a full list of the proposed charter changes and their exact ballot wording, click here.
In addition to the special election, Schertz voters will also elect a council member for Place 6, choosing between Robert Marks, who is challenging incumbent Allison Heyward for a term that lasts from Nov. 2024 to Nov. 2027. The Place 7 councilman, Tim Brown, is running unopposed for the same term.
Early voting starts Oct. 21 at these locations for Schertz voters:
- Elections Office Annex, 1101 Elbel, Schertz, in Guadalupe County
- Garden Ridge City Hall, Municipal Court Room, 9400 Municipal Parkway, Garden Ridge, in Comal County
- Universal City Library, 100 Northview Dr., Universal City, in Bexar County