In the past 15 months, three Austin City Council seats have been vacated and subsequently filled by appointment, one of them twice.

Tuesday, March 14, 2000

In the past 15 months, three Austin City Council seats have been vacated and subsequently filled by appointment, one of them twice. Each time it was a difficult decision for the council. So difficult, in fact, that one vote either way would have made all the difference.

Council member Dick Lang maintains there was one more vote in each of those decisions than there should have been – that of Mayor Bonnie Rietz.

"The way I read the charter, the mayor doesn’t vote," Lang said at the council ordinance committee meeting Monday. "It’s a question of checks and balances: The council appoints but the mayor has the veto. … Otherwise there’s a possibility the mayor could stack the council.

"I’ve talked to the different mayors as far back as Baldy Hanson. None of them voted."

The committee and other council members – only Mickey Jorgenson was absent – met to discuss the issue of the mayoral vote and whether wording in the city charter should be changed to make it clear that whether the mayor has a right to vote or not.

Lang has been pursuing the issue since the last council appointment, made earlier this year when Todd appointed Second Ward seat because of a possible conflict of interest. That vote came down to a 4-3 decision favoring Roger Boughton over Garry Ellingson in the straw vote.

The last time any appointments were made to council was in 1993, when Bob Dahlback replaced Cheryl Gustason in January and Joanne Maxfield replaced Tracy Chamberlain in June. Then-Mayor John O’Rourke did not vote, although he was by all accounts an active participant in the discussion leading to the vote.

After nearly an hour of discussion Monday, ordinance chairman Lang made a motion "that the charter stays in place, with the mayor not voting"; his motion failed for lack of a second. In its place, ordinance committee member Jeanne Poppe made a motion that the committee recommend to council that the mayor be allowed to vote only in the case of a tie between candidates.

Once Neil Fedson confirmed that he was the other member of the ordinance committee, Fedson seconded the motion.

Rietz said she was pleased with the decision of the committee for two reasons in particular: first, that the group works together closely everyday and enjoys a good relationship and second, that like the vice president with the Congress, "it makes sense to have someone as involved as all the council members are to break the tie." The mayor stressed that she felt the decision should come from the council, but admitted that she also thought the mayor should be allowed to vote for the reasons listed above.

As for Lang, he was unhappy with the vote to recommend a change to the 94-year-old charter.

"I think that charter stood in the city of Austin for many years and it should stand the way it is: with the mayor not voting," he said after the meeting. "But I didn’t win. I’ll walk away from this one and get on with other issues."

The ordinance committee’s recommendation now will go to council at its Monday meeting. If the council votes to go with the committee’s recommendation – which is likely, as no other council members overtly sided with Lang in the meeting – the recommendation then will go to the city charter committee. It is the job of the charter committee to independently consider the change and come back to the council with a recommendation.

If the charter committee advises a change, then the council would then amend the charter by ordinance. The charter committee is currently awaiting two appointments by Third District Chief Judge Gerard W. Ring. Other recommended changes to the charter will likely include changing any masculine singular references to "he or she" and clearing up the definition of "Common Council," which is listed in one place as "mayor and council" and in another as only "council members."