Edinburg Council Cuts Proposed Charter Amendment to End Term Limits
Arnoldo Mata
EDINBURG, Texas – The Edinburg City Council last week removed a controversial proposal from a list of potential charter amendments. The proposal to eliminate term limits for council members was cut after significant opposition from community members during a council meeting.
Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. explained that the Edinburg City Council established a Charter Review Committee in 2023 to ensure the city’s charter complied with new state laws. “There’s some laws that have been passed, state laws, that our charter’s not in compliance with. I think our city attorney advised some of those items. We can’t change anything in the charter without going to the voters, right? So what we did is appointed a Charter Review Committee.”
While the current charter does not mandate a Charter Review Committee, Mayor Garza noted that the council took this additional step to incorporate public feedback. The committee was formed in August 2023 and has been meeting twice a month since December.
During the public comments period, Edinburg resident Fern McClaugherty spoke vehemently against the proposed amendment. “I just wanted to remind y’all, the question of placing an item on the ballot to extend the terms in office is becoming an issue. There are several people seem to have approved of this action, and they are on this council as we’re in this room right now,” McClaugherty said.
“If you cannot achieve your community goals in eight years,” McClaugherty added, “then get new goals. My thing is, back in 2018, 67.86% of the voters voted for term limits, two terms of eight years for each one. So my thing is, if you don’t like it, then you shouldn’t have run for office. You have eight years to do good.”
McClaugherty reiterated her stance during the scheduled public hearing on the proposed charter amendments. “We trusted all of you, each of you. White, Diaz, Mayor, David, I can’t remember, and De Leon. My thing is, they voted y’all in office. And do y’all remember what you got elected for? Four-year terms. Then you come up for election again, four-year terms. The President of the United States only gets eight years. If they can’t take care of it, they can’t take care of it, then you should not have any more time,” she argued.
She continued, “They put term limits on you. And then they turned around and gave you eight years. If you do this, I’m hoping that each one in this room will contact their friends, relatives, and loved ones to vote you out of office. So I’m hoping that y’all will table this, do away with that. I don’t care what you do, because the election, I looked it up, there are 67.86% voters that voted for term limits.”
“And if you dare put it on the ballot, then you better word it so that the people vote, have to vote no to pass it. Because we already know that people like to push, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But we will let them know. But I want y’all to do the right thing. Can you not answer to the public, and which one of y’all decided this was such a wonderful deal?”
Mayor Garza clarified that none of the proposed amendments were submitted by the Edinburg City Council members. “They (the Charter Committee) came up with a list of recommendations, which is all these propositions that are here. None of these were put in by the council. The charter review committee. We reviewed all the charter with our city attorney, city secretary, and they came up with the suggested changes that they want to bring to us.”
He further explained that there was no charter review committee appointed in 2018. “We did that extra step because we want to make sure that we engage with the public.”
Other council members reiterated that they had not requested the removal of term limits. Mayor Garza then called on one of the Charter Review Committee members, Mrs. Teter, to speak on the committee’s work. Teter explained that none of the City Council members had requested any changes to the charter.
After a lengthy discussion, the City Council voted unanimously, 5-0, to deny the inclusion of the proposed amendment to remove term limits. The Council will call for a charter amendment election at its next meeting.