BUDA — After talking about it for a couple years, Buda finally is taking the first steps towards self-government.

The city seated a home rule charter commission last week with the expectation of delivering itself from the restrictions of Texas general law statutes in a year. City Administrator Robert Camareno gave the commission its charge, providing documentation concerning home rule requirements from the state. The commission will next meet in January.

Camareno, who became Buda's city administrator in September, said he's unsure of Buda's present population. Home rule can only be enacted by cities that have reached 5,000 residents. The city's population measured 2,417 on the 2000 Census.

Buda went into a building moratorium for most of 2002, hoping to slow expected growth enough to put in the infrastructure needed to accommodate more residents. With the lifting of the moratorium in 2003, residential construction in Buda has boomed to the point at which the population is fast approaching 5,000 residents. Buda expects to reach 5,000 residents within a year.

Home rule cities differ from general law cities in that the latter look to the state legislature for what they can do, while the former look to the legislature for what they can't do. State statute allows home rule cities to set their own form of government and initiate annexation. They also can take one mile of extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) on their periphery and provide measures by which voters can initiate legislation, repeal unpopular legislation or recall elected officials for malfeasance.

"It's an exciting process to actually create a home rule charter," Camareno said. "Once we hit that magic number of 5,000, we can take that charter to the council, the council can call the election, then we go to the voters with it."

Towards determining when the city reaches 5,000 residents, Buda could rely on an official Census, but the next Census won't be taken again until 2010 for a 2011 announcement. By then, Buda may exceed 10,000, if its growth matches step with Kyle, where the population has almost quadrupled to 18,000 from 5,340 on the 2000 Census.

The remaining options are an informal count of the population by the residents, or a multiple of residential waters taps. Generally, cities assume about three residents for every residential water tap.

Kyle, which went to home rule on Oct. 1, 2000, determined its population by counting water taps and multiplying by 2.71. Kyle continues using the water tap method for tracking its population and Camareno said he prefers that method to an informal population count.

Texas voters adopted the home rule amendment to the state constitution in 1912. The amendment stipulates that no city may adopt laws inconsistent with the state constitution or the statutes.

All 14 members of Buda's home rule charter commission live within the city limits. The members are Michael Britton, Lee Verver, Mark Brinkley, Stephen Cooper, William McAnelly, Liz McMillen, Tom Hill, Geraldine O'Brien, Lori Rickabaugh, Beverly Roberts, Annette Chambers, John White, Dawn Carrier and Ron Fletcher.

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