Buda calls special, general elections for November

BUDA — During its Aug. 6 meeting, Buda City Council unanimously approved an order for both a special and general election, to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

The special election will allow voters to adopt or reject proposed amendments to the existing city charter. City council appointed a Charter Review Committee to analyze the charter and to make recommendations for changes; a review of the charter by a council-appointed committee is required every six years.

The committee delivered its recommendations to the city council on Aug. 1, 2023. The council initially called the election for November 2023, but later took action to delay it until 2024.

One of the proposed changes surrounds council's compensation for serving. As currently written in the charter, a council member’s compensation is updated to the then- current pay "until they have been elected at a subsequent election, but it shall be effective for any councilmember or mayor elected after the adoption of the increase in compensation." This language is not currently targeted to change, but it would create inequity within the council as new council members could receive higher compensation than tenured council members, as stated in council agenda documents.

If approved, the charter’s language would be changed to the following:

"Each council member shall be paid two hundred dollars ($200) for attendance at each regular, special or workshop city council meeting and the mayor shall be paid three hundred ($300) for attendance at each regular, special or workshop city council meeting, effective and uniformly applicable upon voter approval. Any future increases in compensation for city council and the mayor may be set by ordinance by the city council. When a council member or mayor votes for an increase in compensation by ordinance that increase shall not be effective for that mayor or council member until they have been elected at a subsequent election, but it shall be effective for any councilmember or mayor elected after the adoption of the increase in compensation. In addition, each council member shall be entitled to reimbursement for his/her actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of his/her specific official duties of office. Said expenses shall be subject to the approval of the city council. The policy regulating payment of expenses incurred in performance of official duty shall be determined by the city council by resolution."

Other proposed changes that would be on the ballot, as recommended by the Charter Review Committee, include: the city attorney being appointed by the city council, instead of the city manager; cleaning up the charter’s language by removing ineffective transitional provisions and correcting misspellings or typographical errors; abide by state law for notices of budget hearings in newspapers; and simplifying the language requiring a balanced budget.

Additionally, the general election will be conducted to fill full terms for council member at-large position 3, currently held by LaVonia Horne-Williams, and council member single member district A, currently held by Paul Daugereau.

The ordinance ordering the general and special elections is a routine action required by the Election Code 3.005(a) to set the date of the election, possible runoff and place for early voting.

Buda City Clerk Alicia Ramirez said that there has been an individual who has applied to run for one of the positions on the November ballot. She requested that if there is only one person to file to run for each position, and the general election is subsequently canceled, then the special election should also be postponed.

“Should I only have one person sign up for each office and the election is uncontested, I am seeking council’s permission to cancel the election because it is considered uncontested. And if we do cancel the regular election, then if we could also postpone the special election — the charter amendments — to 2025,” Ramirez said. “The charter amendments mainly are for the city council’s increase in pay for the compensation and then, of course, there are other grammatical or even just explaining further the language of the charter. Basically, [they are] non-substantial changes and they are changes that can wait, unless you seek otherwise.”

Mayor Lee Urbanovsky confirmed that if the special election does get postponed to next year — if the general election is uncontested — it won’t impact the citizens of Buda “by not making this change until [2025], potentially.”

The city would need to wait until Aug. 19, which is the last day to file for a place on the ballot, as well as the end of the write-in candidacy period before moving forward with potentially canceling the special election.

“Once that is determined and there is only one person running for each of the offices, I will submit a cancellation order to council saying that it’s officially canceled,” Ramirez said.

Council member Evan Ture questioned what costs the city would be cutting amid the federal election.

Ramirez said about $20,000.

City Manager Micah Grau said that there is a federal election also happening in November, but if the city of Buda is not going to have anything placed on the ballot, then the city would not share any of the associated costs.

To keep up with Buda elections, visit www.budatx.gov/258/Election-Information.