City council discusses adding seats, expanding terms

During a work session at the Waxahachie Civic Center on Jan. 25, the Waxahachie City Council discussed increasing the number of council seats from five to seven and expanding the terms from two years to three.

Council members Chris Wright and Travis Smith expressed their support for seven seats on the council.

Mayor David Hill voiced his concern for getting people to run for council. “I don’t know if seven, trying to get seven people to run ... we can’t get people to run against us,” Hill said.

“I’ve talked to several people who mentioned to me they wanted to run for council in the past,” Wright said. “They (told me) they’d run if there was an empty seat or if it’s not currently occupied by somebody they think is doing a decent job. I don’t think we will actually have problems getting someone to run.”

A concern for council member Billie Wallace was reducing the number of runoff elections. When more than two candidates run for a council seat, and no one earns more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election is held between the two candidates with the highest votes.

“A lot of times, people don’t even know there’s a runoff,” Wallace said. “They’ve already voted for their candidate. They’re done, and they don’t go back and vote again. The numbers aren’t accurate.”

“In theory, if you go up to seven (seats), it should help take care of some of the runoffs,” Smith said.

While discussing term expansions, Smith explained how the natural change from five to seven seats is to also change the term from two to three years. “In my opinion, that would help ensure that city staff and the council has a little more stability than the way it is now,” Smith said.

Currently, in even numbered years, three seats are up for election at once. Smith said this could change the majority of the council and “the trajectory of Waxahachie in one single swoop,” pointing out it would take two elections before the majority is changed. If three-year terms were adopted but without a concurrent increase in seats, a longer time span would be involved to see a change.

Smith also explained how he felt three years gives council members more time to adjust and learn and “get things done.”

“If you get three-year terms, then the majority of who’s on there has been around and been involved in that and is knowledgeable and has heard all the conversation and all the discussion with everyone,” council member Chris Wright agreed.

Council member Patrick Souter felt the terms should stay at two years because it would allow the people to hold the council accountable.

“If you run, and you’re not doing what you said you were going to run on, you’ve got to face the people in two years rather than three years,” Souter said.

When asked if the council would like to change the way the mayor is chosen, the majority of the council agreed they wanted to keep it how it is. Currently, the mayor and mayor pro tem are elected by council members.

Since the city’s charter currently states the council will have five seats each with two-year terms, a charter election is required to change either measure. For a November election, it would have to be called by August.

Since this was a work session for the council, no action was taken. The council discussed holding another work session in the future to discuss the topic again. Originally published February 1, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/city-council-discusses-adding-seats-expanding-terms/article_4aeb075a-a27c-11ed-b551-e3d978993e1f.html