Yesterday (1/12/26), the Town Council heard from Gary Smothers and Megan McCaig from the Town Charter Review Committee, presenting the committee’s recommendations. They’ve been meeting since last summer, and I heard repeatedly that it was an earnest and spirited set of discussions. There are 9 members on the committee (in no particular order):
- Kevin Clark (also Town Council Member)
- Jerry Johnson
- Lauren Larson
- George Mathews
- Megan McCaig
- Georgeann Moss
- Joe turner
- Jim Wade
- Gary Smothers
The recommendations of the committee are a set of N proposals that will be offered as individual, separate items for Sunnyvale residents to vote on in our May election.
First: term limits. The Committee proposes changing Section 3.02 to add term limits for both the mayor and town council members. A mayor’s term will be extended from 2 years to 3 years to match council members, starting with our next mayor election (in May 2027). Term limits will be for 3 consecutive terms (so 9 years), including service both as a council member and as mayor. For example, if you serve 1 term (3 years) on the council, you could serve a maximum of 2 terms (6 years) as mayor, before a mandatory “sit out” period of 3 years before you’re eligible to serve as council member or mayor again.
Gary and Megan from the committee mentioned that one rationale for setting these term limits was to give community members an opportunity to run, who might otherwise be intimidated by an incumbent–this will guarantee some seats becoming vacant over time. They also mentioned that this is reasonable compared to what other nearby towns do. The term limits would not be retroactive–so our town council members who originally stepped up in 2018 to serve would still be able to serve another 3 terms, helping to preserve institutional knowledge and continuity on the council. If someone fills a vacated seat (like the one Holly Garland is currently serving in) it would only count if they fill at least 50% of the term.
Council Member Woodrow expressed some concern with the term limit being just 9 years, noting that our excellent school system has Board members who have served a long time, and worrying that we could lose some very good people if they’re forced to sit out.
Second: minor clauses around filling vacancies. Since we are also changing the mayor’s terms from 2 years to 3 years, if hypothetically our mayor vacated the seat before the May 2027 election, we would need to hold a special election to comply with the Texas Constitution. So subsection E of Section 3.0.6 is deleted and the mayor is added to subsection D and closes that legal loophole. Hopefully our mayor serves out his term and this never has to really matter, but from listening to the Town Council meeting last night it seemed like the lawyers on the review committee thought it was a good thing to do anyway.
Third: revising the Code of Ethics. Of all the provisions, this one probably had the most discussion last night. The review committee suggests to remove the word “official” from Section 3.0.7 of the town charter related to town council investigations. This would empower the town council to investigate the conduct of a town official, employee, or appointee if they were accused of something serious, even if it wasn’t part of their official duties. As I’ve written about before, many ethics codes include an “outside conduct” section that includes a catch-all clause like this one (borrowed from the Department of Justice’s ethics code):
Avoiding the appearance of impropriety: Employees should avoid any actions that could create the appearance of violating the law or ethical standards.
The removal of the word “official” seems intended to do something similar. If a majority of the Town Council were to believe a council member has done something inappropriate in their personal life (like maybe steal a car), this revision would now let the council vote to investigate and potentially remove that member. Without this amendment (as the charter currently stands), if a council member were to steal a car or harm someone but not while conducting town business, the town council has no power to act. So in some ways this proposal makes a lot of common sense.
Council members had a lot of questions about this amendment, in particular if this would give the town council too much power? How far does the council’s investigative powers go if it’s no longer tied to “official” acts? Could the council delve into some council member’s personal business or life that has no bearing on their council behavior? For example, if a council member was going through a divorce would other council members now have power to ignite a smear campaign or witch hunt to dredge up the unpleasant details in front of the whole town? Or what if a neighbor has a personal vendetta against the mayor or the town manager–could they levy spurious accusations at a town council meeting and give false rumors oxygen to spread? As council member Finch noted in his questions about this amendment, it’s hard enough to get good people to run for office.
Review committee member McCaig noted that the committee members had spent a long time going over both sides of the argument. The committee didn’t want to have a situation where Sunnyvale residents are genuinely, seriously concerned about a town council member’s behavior, but the council’s hands are tied and they can’t do anything–which is what the charter currently does. The review committee still has time (until February 9th I think) to consider the town council’s comments and make changes to what will go on the ballot in May. One change the council recommended was that if we still allow investigations in to non-official unethical acts, that the council need some kind of super-majority to vote and start the investigation, i.e. some higher threshold to avoid a witch hunt or smear campaign scenario.
Other smaller changes: Mayor and Town Council will be required to take 8 hours of ethics training (I believe this was per term, not per year). Section 3.08 amended so that if you recently served as mayor or council member, you have to wait 2 years instead of currently just 1 year before you can serve in a compensated position for the town (I don’t think this was directed at anyone in particular). Section 3.09: allows mayor or any one council member to put an item on the town council’s meeting agenda–currently it takes either the mayor or three council members to put an item on the agenda. Section 5.01: this change will permit the town council to hire a town manager even if they don’t reside in the town of Sunnyvale–this will let us hire top talent even if they may live in someplace like Rockwall and aren’t able to relocate here for family reasons (e.g., their kid has 2 more years of high school, after which time they could move here to Sunnyvale). Section 3.02: gives the town secretary and town attorney more independence from the town manager, because the town council no longer needs the “recommendation of the town manager” to hire these positions. Section 10.01: clarifies the nepotism rule: town council members will be allowed to have their family members volunteer at unpaid roles for the town (like helping at SunnyFest), but can’t serve on boards or commissions (so a council member’s daughter/sister can’t serve on the board for SunnyFest).
These provisions will be presented to vote in May as individual propositions, we will have to vote on item by item. It will take > 50% of voters to pass each ballot item.
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