Taylor City Council’s ordinance to increase their own stipends spawned a petition by residents. Another petition is circulating to revise the city charter, which defines how city officials can operate.
A number of residents, largely spearheaded by Gary Gola, are attempting to undo the pay raise by amending the city charter. If enacted, this petition would set council compensation at $125 per meeting for each council member and the mayor position.
“We want to put compensation in the charter so that the voters have a say anytime they change it,” Gola said. “The compensation we landed on is exactly what the compensation committee that the City Council put together recommended.”
In addition to setting the stipends at $250 a month, the petition lists three other propositions to be placed on the May ballot.
The second proposition would amend the charter to require a minimum of 72 hours between meetings from the time a non-emergency ordinance is introduced to the time it can be adopted, which Gola says stemmed from the back-to-back public hearings held for the council compensation ordinance.
The petition also calls for the at-large position to serve as the mayor, which Gola said allows every resident to vote for the position. Currently, the mayor is selected by the Council.
Lastly, the petition wants to amend the charter to require all council meetings to be held within the Taylor city limits.
For all four propositions to be seen on next year’s ballot, Gola and his team must collect signatures from 5% of registered voters by sometime in February. To meet this in time for the deadline, petitioners are hoping to gain 470 signatures by mid-January.
“We haven’t tallied anything, but we’ve had a really good response,” Gola said. “Lots of people are getting signatures. We have stacks of these petitions given to about 25 to 30 individuals who are circulating these.”
While another petition to overturn the compensation ordinance received over 1,300 signatures last month, Gola said he is not worried about potential signers having petition fatigue. He said while there has been some confusion, with some residents believing they had already signed the charter amendment petition because of the referendum petition. Gola believes people eventually understand that this is a different solution to a perceived problem.
“One of them is temporary, but the city council ultimately still has control of their compensation,” Gola said. “Whereas with this one, the City Council can ask for whatever compensation they want, but they have to put it on the ballot and get voter approval.”
Meanwhile, Terry Burris, the main organizer of the previous referendum petition, is against amending the charter. Some believe his petition is a temporary fix, but Burris says he does not believe the Council would pass another compensation increase ordinance after seeing a successful petition.
Burris also said he’s not a big fan of “micromanaging” what the Council can do. He said not allowing the Council to meet outside of Taylor could prevent opportunities to meet with state leaders.
Since amendments to the charter are locked for two years after they are approved by voters, Burris said he is an advocate for more of a loose charter.
“I personally feel the charter is one of the most important documents in Taylor and it deserves review from a selected citizens committee with open meetings,” Burris said. “That’s the way I feel the charter should be reviewed and it wasn’t done that way in this scenario, so I decided not to participate.”
Taylor Communications Director Stacey Osborne said the city has no comment about the petition at this time.
