City Secretary Jeana Bellinger reviewed Article III of the Brenham Charter to the mayor and council members during the most recent regular session, covering terms of office, salaries for council members and the mayor and the introduction and passing of ordinances and resolutions.
The review and ensuing discussion brought discord between council members when it came to the idea of term limits, but they were united in agreeing the salaries for the council positions and mayor should be increased.
While the agreement was not unanimous, the council ultimately asked Bellinger and City Attorney Cary Bovey to put together a proposition to go before Brenham voters next year limiting council members to three terms, with each term lasting four years, for a maximum possible 12 years serving on the council or as mayor.
The term lengths were changed previously in 1985, 1995 and 2015, going from one to two years, two to three years and then three to four years, respectively. There has, however, never been a limit on the number of terms an individual can serve.
Bellinger showed the comparison of Brenham’s current rules against the sample cities she introduced previously to council during the review of Articles I and II. The cities include Addison, Bay City, Boerne, College Station, Kerrville, Manor and Seagoville.
Both Kerrville and College Station have larger populations than Brenham’s, with Kerrville higher by about 5,000 and College Station higher by more than seven times, coming in at over 120,000 people.
The other cities closely mirror Brenham’s population, last noted by the Census at nearly 18,000 people.
The comparison cities have similar-sized councils (including the respective mayors), with Kerrville coming in as the smallest at five members, Seagoville, Boerne and Bay City at six and Addison, College Station and Manor at seven. Brenham also has seven.
Only two of the comparison cities have no term limit while Boerne and Seagoville both currently allow council members to run for as many terms as they want. College Station has a limit of two terms, and the remaining have a limit of three terms for a total of 12 possible years of service.
Council member Adonna Saunders said she is in favor of term limits, but had mixed emotions at the same time as she also felt citizens have the ability to vote out members at any point.
Council member Leah Cook asked what the longest term served has been in Brenham, and Mayor Atwood Kenjura replied it was by Mayor Milton Tate, who served for about 20 years, he said.
Kenjura was one of the few who 100 percent supported the adoption of term limits.
“It’s good to get new people in,” he said. “Twelve years is a long time.”
Council member Albert Wright agreed with Saunders in having mixed feelings, but agreed 12 years is a long time to serve on the council or as mayor.
Council member Clint Kolby was one of the others completely in favor of the limits, saying 12 was a great compromise between having continuity.
“Sometimes it takes a full two years just to learn the budget process,” he said.
Agreeing 12 is a good number, council member Dr. Paul LaRoche III added, “Someone has to want to run, too.”
He said if there aren’t people interested in serving, it could lead to an issue come election time. Kolby agreed, adding sometimes he has known folks who may have been interested in serving but were unable to dedicate the time away from their 9 to 5 careers.
He then asked Bellinger about members such as himself, who come in mid-term to complete the term for someone who stepped down. Bellinger said those years would not be counted toward the term limit, as they are “known as unexpired terms.”
The council was far more in agreement for raises to the salaries of their respective positions, however. Currently, Brenham’s city council members make $225 per month, with Kenjura making $250 per month. The comparison cities varied greatly from each other for salaries, with some paying per meeting and others offering the monthly salaries, but at higher amounts.
College Station’s council and mayor, however, do not earn salaries, Bellinger said.
“They get reimbursed for mileage and expenses,” she said, but do not have other salaries.
LaRoche recommended bringing the salaries up to at least meet the rise of inflation since the last time they were increased was in 1993. The first change was made in 1978, with another in 1985 before the most recent change 21 years ago.
Kolby suggested doubling the current salaries, which was widely accepted by council members.
Kenjura, however, said, “Council shouldn’t have left this unaddressed for 30 years.”
“I don’t think there should be such an exorbitant difference in the [salaries of] council members and the mayor,” he said.
However, the council agreed doubling the salary to $450 per month and the mayor’s to $500 was a good place to start, agreeing to place the suggestion as a proposition before Brenham voters.
Finally, the council discussed the current procedure for adopting ordinances and resolutions. While the city used to have to publish proposed ordinances and/or resolutions, that requirement was changed in 2015, Bellinger said. The only comparison city still requiring print notice is Seagoville, she said.
Bellinger suggested the council also could remove the requirement for a second reading of the ordinance, which City Development Services Director Stephanie Doland said could be very helpful for developers and those requesting plat changes and other things.
However, multiple council members had concerns with allowing the ordinances to pass after one reading, especially given the recent trend of people only becoming aware of the proposal after the first passage and coverage is published in the newspaper, Saunders said.
After much back-and-forth regarding the benefit of two readings versus the convenience of one, Bellinger and Bovey suggested possibly drafting a proposition that allows some ordinances to pass with one, such as franchise requests, while others would still require two readings.
Ultimately, however, the council decided to bring the topic back in a later meeting to allow council members and city staff to explore the best options.
The city will continue to review the articles of the Brenham City Charter through this summer in anticipation of bringing propositions to the public for a vote next spring.
