Friendswood taxpayers, there could be a silver lining in the action of your city council. By their sheer arrogance, they could lose their office and you could elect true representatives of the citizens. Mayor David Smith may put entire council at risk.
The Charter provisions that may require Council to forfeit their office are provided below --
Sec. 3.06. Vacancies, forfeiture, filling of vacancies.
(a) Vacancies: The Office of a Councilmember or Office of the Mayor shall become vacant upon his/her death, resignation, removal from office in any manner authorized by law, or forfeiture of his/her office.
(b) Forfeiture of office: A Councilmember or the Mayor shall forfeit his[/her] office if he/she:
(1) Lacks at any time during his/her term of office any qualification for the office prescribed by this Charter or by law;
(2) Violates any express prohibition of this Charter;
(3) Is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude; or
(4) Fails to attend three consecutive regular Council meetings without being excused by the Council.
(c) Filling vacancies: When a vacancy shall develop, the Council shall provide for the filling of such vacancy in the manner provided by law.
(Ord. No. 214, § 1, 3-4-1974, election 4-6-1974; Res. No. R88-15, § 3, 5-9-1988; Res. No. R2002-10, § 7, 2-18-2002, election 5-4-2002)
As such, Council must prove that they are not violating the prohibition found in 8.05 (f) --
(f) Elections to authorize debt: Notwithstanding any other provision contained in this Section 8.05 to the contrary, the Council shall be prohibited from incurring debt not payable from then current revenues unless a proposition therefor has been approved by the voters at a Special Election held for such purpose; provided, however, the Council shall be authorized to incur debt without the necessity of a Special Election if necessary due to an emergency or urgent public necessity, which emergency or urgent public necessity shall be expressed in the ordinance or resolution authorizing such debt.
The City Council and Mayor Smith appear to have little regard for the citzens or the Charter, but perhaps that could be their demise. Yes,there could be a silver lining in their actions...and good news for taxpayers!
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For citizens interested in volunteering to work to get signatures to require a vote of the citizens, join the google group and scroll down to the bottom of the page and volunteer. http://groups.google.com/group/cityvscitizens/web/overview-3?hl=en&hl=en
Or just post your e-mail or other contact info (your name if you're in the phone book) on this blog mentioning that you are interested in being a volunteer.
Friendswood is the home of Chris Peden, the mayor pro-tem who took on Congressman Ron Paul last year, right?
Are all of the councilmen + the mayor in on this, or is there a true representative - just one - on there?
As someone who grew up in a county (Ellis; south of Dallas) and later covered politics for the countywide conservative paper, our commissioners court took a voter-rejected bond package for a new government center and jail and passed a tax anticipation note to fund the projects anyway.
The "friends" in Friendswood, be on the look out, because I betcha they'll try a TAN before too long.
-Joey
EllisCountyPress.com
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