Council districts will be same size

A member of Diboll's Home Rule Commission is worried that a general misunderstanding of the proposed city charter to be voted on May 10 might threaten the document's passage.

"There's a misconception that the populations of the districts are variant," Tate said. "That's the opposite of the truth."

The proposed charter calls for a six-member city council, one more than at present, with four members elected from districts within the city and two elected at-large. Tate suggested the configuration at the commission's first meeting.

Initial discussions centered around lines that were arbitrarily drawn, using U.S. 59 as the east-west divisor and Thompson Dennis streets as the north-south. That did not give an even population division, however, so the city sought expert advice down to calculating the population by census tracts, and the four districts as now proposed are as close to even as can be achieved.

U.S. 59 remains the primary divider from east to west, although after forming the border from the north city limit to Thompson, it hop-scotches down that street to the Southern Pacific rail line and follows the tracks to the south city limit. The north-south boundaries are considerably more complicated to describe. Maps were included in the charter packages that were sent to the city's voters on April 10.

Tate's idea for the four districts, endorsed without opposition by the rest of the commission, was to ensure that all parts of the city are guaranteed at least one seat on the council. All current members of the council live close together.

Two former city officials, former Mayor James Simms and former Councilman Bo Smith, both have voiced objections to what is called the "ax-grinder's" rule, which prohibits a city employee from quitting his or her job and immediately running for elective office. A one-year wait would be required. Similarly, an elected official would be barred from resigning the office to take a city job. Again, a one-year wait would be required.

Simms, at the April 8 public hearing on the charter, pointed out that under the rule, Kent Havard could not have resigned from the council 10 years ago to take the police chief 's job. City Attorney Jimmy Cassels acknowledged that, but said nine out of 10 times such moves turn out badly. Most of the Texas city charters studied by the commission include the ax-grinder's rule, Cassels said.

Tate seconded that point last week. The intent of the rule is for personal conflicts, often between two individuals, not to spill over into the workings of the city, he said. The year wait provides a "cooling-off period" if such conflicts arise, Cassels said at the public hearing.

"When you start analyzing this thing (the proposed charter), which I have done," Tate said, "there's very few changes." The ax-grinder's rule, the four districts and added council member, giving the mayor a vote on all issues and not just to break a tie, and requiring future city managers to live within the city limits are about the extent of substantive changes under the proposed charter, he said.

Day-to-day operations of the city would not change. Control over personnel would remain within the city manager's powers, Tate said.