Willow Park town hall offers explanations

Gene Martin, Chairman of the Home Rule Committee, led the meeting with Mayor Teresa Palmer and an audience of slightly more than 20 — which included the members of the committee itself.

Palmer has been pushing for a change to home rule since she campaigned for mayor, making it a top agenda item.

Martin began the meeting by noting that general law cities typically have less than 5,000 residents. Willow Park’s population in 2025, according to the World Population Review, is 7,734.

“Willow Park was declared over 5,000 in population in 2016. Why are we still a general law city?” Martin asked.

Basic differences

Some basic differences between general law and home rule are:

General law — Has no charter and may only exercise those powers that are specifically granted by state law.

Home rule — May do anything authorized by its charter (which is voted on by the citizens) that is not specifically prohibited or pre-empted by the state constitution or state/federal law. A charter is essentially the constitution of the city.

In a home rule city, the mayor can have more power than in general law, depending on the type of charter drawn up. The mayors of many home rule cities also vote at council meetings, along with having veto power and the ability to force reconsideration.

Under the current system in Willow Park, the mayor can only vote to break a tie — which isn’t often, given the council has five members. The mayor is a CEO and budget officer for the city.

Other things a switch to a home rule city could bring include the ability of citizens to remove officials through recall elections; allowing for the removal of council members for such things as absences and intentional violations of the charter; and term limits.

General law cities have no right of recall. To remove officials they must file a petition in the district court and have a trial.

Martin said to address some of these issues, some of the committee’s significant recommendations so far include:

• Increasing the number of council members from five to six.
• Increasing the length of council and mayor terms in office from two to three years.
• Giving the mayor a vote at all times, not just to break ties.
• Creating an independent board of ethics.

Focus cities

The committee has focused on four home rule cities to study their charters while working to form one for Willow Park. They are:

• Liberty Hill (population 14,850): Council-manager form of government, city council sets policy and city manager executes.
• Sachse (35,766): Council-manager form.
• Melissa (29,727): Council-manager form.
• Ennis (26,008): Commission form, city commission holds legislative and executive powers; includes a mayor and commissioners, five elected from single-member districts and others at-large.

Of that group, only in Ennis does the mayor regularly at council meetings. At the other three, the mayor votes only in the case of a tie.

Martin said the committee has thus far focused on five of the 10 items in their charter ideas.

“We agreed to go forward with those sections as currently published on the website,” he said. “Does it mean that they are locked in concrete, no. As we go through the rest of this there can be reasons to go back and revisit parts of it.”

Martin said the committee was meeting again on Oct. 22, with another meeting on Nov. 5. The next town hall will be Nov. 13, he said.

“Our goal is to present to the city council a complete proposed draft of the of the home rule charter on Dec. 9,” he said. “I realize that is a bit aggressive, but with the people we have on the commission it is feasible.”

What if the citizens don’t want it?

One of the audience members asked the question, if the citizens don’t want it on the ballot, what can be done? Martin never directly answered the question, saying, “I hope it’s not accurate. I hope it’s not a necessary question.”

At that time, Marcy Galle injected that if the council doesn’t put the charter vote on the ballot, there is a process through which it can be forced on, though it might take up to a year and a half.

In Texas, a city council cannot deny putting a home rule city measure on the ballot if citizens submit a valid petition with the required number of signatures. However, the city council has a role in the process and can ensure the petition meets legal requirements before calling for an election.

Palmer and Galle have been leading a push to get the home rule vote on the ballot for next May’s election. In fact, earlier this year, Galle pushed for a vote this November, which was unsuccessful given the time constraints.

Citizen input

Martin stressed the committee wants input from Willow Park residents.

“We are essentially interested in every citizen in Willow Park paying attention to what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re trying to be open and transparent, which is why we are here tonight.”

For more information about the home rule committee and its work, visit https://www.willowparktx.gov/.