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Buda city charterPosted October 31, 2007, 3:20 a.m.
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Hays Highway Editor
BUDA – John White was just a lad when his family moved to Buda in 1982. The city tipped the scales at 594 people back then, just sitting quietly three miles of IH-35 long before contemporary demography and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) turned the highway into a busy corridor.
White's father, Grey White, served the city for decades, first as a city councilmember, then mayor, then city administrator and finance director before his death in 2004. The younger White said he has lived here "pretty much all of my life."
In the last two years, John White has participated in one of the city's key moments of passage, the composition of a home rule charter that goes before voters on Nov. 6. White said his father would happy with the city taking this step. So is he.
"I'm very excited about it happening," White said. "It's a great document we're done here. I'm honored to be involved. I'm pleased."
White served on a charter committee than met 20 times, starting in Nov. 2005. Almost all cities eligible on reaching 5,000 citizens embrace home rule, which releases cities from the encumbrance of the state legislature. Cities with general rule powers can only take actions specifically stated by the legislature, while cities under home rule can take any action the legislature doesn't specifically prohibit.
Buda declared a population exceeding 5,000 in August. With a charter ready to go after two years of work, the city then called a charter election. No vocal opposition to the charter has presented itself.
In fact, Buda has governed itself as much like a home rule city as possible in recent years. For example, the charter calls for a Council-Manager form of government, whereas a general rule city must run a Mayor-Council form of government. However, the mayor and city council in Buda years ago granted authority to run the daily operation to a city administrator.
Passage of the charter will give Buda authority to take a larger extra-territorial jurisdiction and initiate annexation. Adoption also would change the mayor's powers, giving him a vote on all issues, while also providing that council candidates will run for specific seats. For the first time, the council also would receive payment, with the mayor receiving $75 per meeting and the councilmembers receiving $50 per meeting.
If the charter were in effect today, citizens would be voting for a mayor on Nov. 6. The charter calls for the council to call a special election for the next uniform election date when a councilmember or mayor resigns. But when former Mayor John Trube resigned at the end of July, the council decided to hang with Mayor-Pro Tem Bobby Lane and call a mayor election for next May.
Councilmembers have said they didn't wish to muddy the Nov. 6 election with a mayoral race while the charter was up for vote. Under the charter, the council wouldn't have that choice.
The charter would give citizens new powers to recall the mayor and councilmembers, initiate legislation and vote down legislation passed by the council. Legislation also would have to pass two readings before becoming law.
"If the newspaper picks up on some legislation and you don't like it, you have time to say something about it," said Buda City Administrator Robert Camareno, who will become city manager on passage of the charter.
The charter requires a balanced budget and calls for the creation of a taxation department to collect revenues. The charter also calls for the creation of a zoning board of adjustments to grant variances. Presently, the city council designates part of its meetings to act as the board of adjustments. The charter is subject to review three years after adoption, then every six years thereafter.
"There are cities that have gone years and years and years without reviewing their charter," Camareno said. "I don't think that's good practice, and neither does the home rule commission."
Camareno said the charter commission consulted charters from such cities as Boerne, Round Rock and Cedar Park, but didn't model its document on any one city. As charter commission member Tom Hill said, "When we had specific issues, we looked at other cities about the same size as Buda to see if they had any guidance."
The Buda charter contains two notable differences from the first charter adopted by Kyle in 2000.
In order to recall a city official, the Buda charter calls for a number of petition signatures equaling 30 percent of the eligible voters from the most recent general election. The Kyle charter required only 300 signatures, which led to a divisive mayoral recall election in 2003. Kyle has since amended that provision.
The Kyle charter also calls for single-member districts whereby some councilmembers represent specific areas of the city. The Buda charter includes no single-member districts, though it establishes election to specific seats. Gone, then, would be the days of all candidates running for all the open seats, with the top vote recipients winning election.
Adoption of the charter would constitute just one more change for Buda, the city once known for its funny name and rural ways,
"There's one thing my dad said to me that sticks out," John White said, standing in the city council chambers. "He said, "I can see us keeping the sleepy town here, with all the growth on the interstate."
If anything, Buda is growing beyond those expectations, with additional development east of the highway and west of the old town. Soon, it's likely the city will take on the form of government to take more control over that growth.
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