The Willow Park city council and residents of the city had some tense exchanges at the Tuesday, June 23, council meeting when discussing the city’s development of a home rule charter.
Last year, Mayor Teresa Palmer appointed the commission to write a new charter for the city as the first step in Willow Park becoming a home rule city — a designation that gives both the city government and residents more say in how the city is governed and operated.
After several months of effort, the commission presented its work to the council in hopes of getting it on the May ballot for a resident vote. Under the law, the council could not make changes to the charter.
However, some council members questioned the legality of some of the charter’s provisions, and, due to timing, the charter vote was pushed back to November. That move also required some dates in the charter itself to be changed. At the time, the council voted to disband the commission.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the appointment of a new charter commission was on the agenda.
Council Member Eric Contreras kicked off the discussion by plugging the concept of data centers in the charter.
“The number one, the best way for us to protect our city in the future from data centers is putting a chapter in our home rule charter that specifically eliminates data centers from our city,” Contreras said.
Palmer questioned the council’s council’s commitment to opposing data centers, pointing to the developer’s agreement with the Beall Dean project, in which the council had voted to keep language about data centers in the agreement.
Contreras replied that “no one’s really thought about it at all until the last couple months. So I started researching what is the best way that protects our city. Period. And it’s putting it in the home rule charter. If we are actually serious about making sure data centers can never come to the city of Willow Park, then we need to modify our home rule charter to adopt language that protects our city.”
Resident Carol Bracken, who was a member of the commission that wrote the charter, was opposed to the idea of amending the charter before it goes to the voters for approval.
“I would ask you to consider that the charter that was presented to you was created by your constituents. It was created by people who worked very hard to try and create a document that was reasonable, fair, balanced, and consistent with the home rule charters of other cities of similar attributes to the city of Willow Park,” Bracken said. “I suggest that disregarding the work of your constituents is profoundly disrespectful and indicates a lack of interest of this council in the wishes of its citizenry.”
Resident Roy Kurban suggested placing the prohibition against data centers into a separate issue for voters. Kurban accused Contreras of using the issue as a stalling mechanism to prevent the charter from being ready to vote on by November. Contreras replied that once a charter is approved, it can’t be changed for two years.
“And just so to make sure we’re on the same page, I think you all know this — the last day for this council to order the election for the November election is Aug. 17,” City Attorney Andy Messer said.
Council Member Nathan Crummel spoke in favor of the concept presented by Contreras while showing sympathy with the concerns of the original charter commission members.
“I believe Mr. Contreras has offered a bulletproof vest to all known assaults [data centers] at the moment … What I also hear is another side trying to protect what they have rightfully and hard work have spent to do, which I absolutely believe, and I do not believe that is the intention to go rewrite a new charter,” Crummel said.
Contreras made a motion for the city council and mayor to appoint a new charter commission “with a specific goal of amending several items for dates and other things that are out of date now, but also creating a chapter or a provision … in order to protect our city from data centers.” His motion called for the council to appoint 12 commissioners, and the mayor to appoint three. The motion passed unanimously.
Gene Martin, who chaired the original charter commission, suggested that the same commission be reappointed, and expressed concern about the scope of changes that would be made to the charter.
In the wake of a water main break on Squaw Creek Road, Contreras advocated for the city to take out a tax note for $6 million for street repairs.
The council had planned to reconstruct Squaw Creek Road and the water line using Certificates of Obligation, but a petition at the last moment to force a vote on the issue moved the funding mechanism to a November vote.
Contreras pointed to the 40-foot water main break in his remarks.
“If we were able to proceed forward like we wanted to in February, crisis averted, we would already been started on that project, but we’re dealt with the hand we have, so this is what I think is the best solution for our city to move forward, so we can start getting more roads done, and then further we can look at trying to address water, since we can’t do it with the tax note.
The city is applying for a grant from the Texas Water Development Board that it hopes would pay for the Squaw Creek water line reconstruction, but Contreras said the tax note could be used for repair of other streets if the city does not receive the grant.
The tax note would need to be repaid in seven years. Contreras said there is room to do the tax note without raising property tax rates. The measure passed unanimously.
In a related action, the council voted to modify its Texas Water Development Board grant application to include water line replacement projects.
In other business, the council:
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