Port Isabel mulls charter changes

PORT ISABEL — Officials are considering changes to the City Charter that would lengthen the terms of elected officials from two years to three and increase stipends paid to the mayor and city commissioners.

One proposal would increase stipends from $48 a month for commissioners to $100 and from $96 a month for the mayor to $150.

Officials will be discussing the proposals in upcoming meetings, but voters will have the final say.

Place 1 Commissioner J.J. Zamora said it is time to update the City Charter.

"I think it was created in the early ’80s," he said.

"We’ve noticed it’s hard to get anything done in two years. Three years would be better; it would be less costly."

The idea of increasing stipends is also a good one, Zamora said.

"We’ve got to make sure we get better quality people," he said, referring to the cost of participating in local government. "The gas cost, alone, is a lot. Fifty bucks a month isn’t much."

Place 3 Commissioner Martin C. Cantu said it would be beneficial if terms were lengthened from two years to three because of the amount of time needed to campaign for re-election and to raise campaign funds.

"That will help," he said if the measure received approval from voters. "I haven’t had an opponent for the last few terms."

Place 4 Commissioner Guillermo "Memo" Torres indicated he is open to the idea of increasing stipends.

"That would be nice," Torres said. The payments mostly cover the cost of gasoline to travel to meetings at City Hall, to inspect city projects and to meet with residents, he said.

"I’m not complaining," he said of the proposal to increase the monthly stipend.

"We have all these meetings, regular and all these special meetings; sometimes there’s one almost every day," he said.

"I haven’t missed a meeting, not on the City Commission or back when I was on planning and zoning."

Mayor Joe Vega and Place 2 Commissioner Maria de Jesus "M.J." Garza were not available for comment Friday.

Also being considered is changing the date of city elections.

Any changes that would affect elections must first be approved by the U.S. Justice Department, City Manager Edward Meza said.

A plan to move upcoming city elections from May to November will likely be scrapped, Meza said.

Cameron County Elections Administrator Roger Ortiz told him the county has electronic voting machines reserved for Port Isabel’s use in May but won’t have any available in November when the presidential election takes place. It would cost Port Isabel about $8,000 to buy its own machines, he said.

The charter will likely be amended just to reflect that it is now held in May, but not to move it to November, Meza said.

Since there are only three items that are proposed to be placed on the May ballot, there really isn’t any need for a charter review committee, Meza said.

The City Charter calls for city elections to be held in April but they have been held in May for the past 15 years, Cantu said. Most likely voters will approve changing the charter to hold elections in May since that has been the practice for a long time, he said. But he doubts if anyone will want to change the city election to coincide with federal elections in the fall because of the expense of buying voting machines instead of leasing them from the county.