TAYLOR CITY COUNCIL
One of the new mayor and City Council’s first acts in office was to enact a new ordinance lowering their pay, as well as charter amendments that change how the mayor is elected, where meetings will be held and a mandatory waiting period between meetings.
“The charter amendments A through D and F were placed on the ballot for May 4. All propositions passed. So our next step is for council to approve this resolution tonight and all those items, A through D and F will be enacted in the charter,” Deputy City Manager Jeffery Jenkins told the seated officials.
One of the most highlycelebrated election wins was a measure to reverse an unpopular pay raise for council members.
Proposition A repeals the controversial 2023 ordinance that raised the pay of council members and the mayor from the amount set in Taylor’s city charter. The public officials’ pay jumped from $125 per council meeting to $500 per regular meeting for council members and $750 per regular meeting for the mayor.
The pay rate sparked ire in the community and a referendum initiative was created to repeal it. When the referendum initiative didn’t pass, the group behind it submitted a charter amendment petition for the same purpose.
Thursday’s meeting marked the first use of the reversed pay scale.
“The way we’re going to look at it is we’re looking at two regular meetings for this month. Council pay for May 9 will be based on the previous ordinance, the way it was, because the meeting already happened earlier in the month. This meeting we’ll handle at the $125 rate as it was in the charter initiative and then it will continue on at $125 per month,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins announced that Proposition C, which allows residents to directly elect the city’s mayor, will not go into effect until 2026. Under the new rule the person elected as the at-large council member in 2026 will automatically become mayor. Mayor Dwayne Ariola is the current at-large council member.
“If you remember Jan. 11 we had a charter amendment expert that came and spoke to council and that was his opinion and that’s what was laid out in Ordinance 2024-05,” Jenkins said.
Taylor resident Gary Gola, who helped spearhead the petition, was frustrated by council’s response to the successful petitions.
“I’ve done an open records request to get the evidence [the charter expert] presented to council and they said there is no information available. That’s telling me he didn’t give them any concrete evidence to base his opinion on, so therefore we think the proposition should be enacted in May of 2024, not 2026,” Gola said.
In public comment, Gola told the mayor and council, “I would like tonight for someone to make a resolution to accept the resolution striking that language and let’s figure out in the next year what the correct language is before May of 2025 when the next election cycle comes up.”
City council adjourned into an unscheduled executive session, presumably to discuss the legal position of Gola’s comments and request, and took no action upon their return to the meeting.
Jenkins also said the next charter election cannot happen until November 2026 because of the twoyear rule.
“The charter election happened on May 4 and in 2026 [election day is] May 2 and we can’t have charter elections within two years,” Jenkins told council.
Gola also disputed that claim, stating the law refers to enacting new amendments, not when they are voted in.
“State law governs city charters and it says you cannot change it more often than every two years. So, if we’re changing it tonight we could change it again 24 months from tonight, not two and a half years from tonight. Technically you could have an election this November and not enact it until 2026,” Gola ascertained.
The other changes enacted Thursday were Proposition B, D and F.
Proposition B sets a minimum of 72 hours between when a nonemergency ordinance can be introduced and adopted. The previous rule allowed the city to call back-to-back meetings to introduce and then adopt laws, a loophole they used to push through the now-repealed pay raise.
Proposition D requires all City Council meetings to be held in Taylor so residents can attend. At least one official city meeting in 2023 was held at an out-of-town resort during a retreat.
Proposition F aligns Taylor’s polling places with state law, calling for a convenient voting location within each district.
