What propositions are on your ballot?

UPDATE: El Paso City Council Members are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 16 to certify the results of the May 6 Election. The meeting will be taking place at 2 p.m. located at City Hall.

KTSM 9 News has also gathered unofficial final voting results which were released earlier this month by the El Paso County Elections Department.

El Paso, Texas (KTSM) – With 11 propositions on the ballot, including the Climate Charter Proposition K, you might be less familiar with the others. Local officials explained how these propositions could impact you.

You will find almost a dozen propositions on your ballot on May 6 and some of them include:

PROPOSITION A

“Should section 3.1 of the City Charter, relating to creation, composition; powers and duties of Council be amended to allow City Council Representatives to appoint and remove district office staff?”

Laura Cruz-Acosta, Public Information Officer for the City of El Paso said that some of these propositions are complex and encourages voters to read up on them.

Proposition A, she explained, allows you to make a decision whether the city council representative can hire employees individually for their districts.

“As the city grows, the demand on the council members offices does grow as well, and so it gives them that flexibility to be able to hire folks that they need to hire,” said Cruz-Acosta.

She further explained that this would allow more flexibility for city representatives to hire, but they would still have to stick to the budget.

PROPOSITION B

“Should section 3.18 of the City Charter relating to Leases, Franchises, and Conveyances be amended to authorize Council to lease City owned property for 40 years or less by Council resolution or ordinance?”

This proposition concerns properties owned by the city that are being leased.

As the City Charter states right now, these properties can only be leased through ordinances, but if you vote “For” on Proposition B, the city would be able to approve the lease through a resolution.

“A resolution would allow [the lease] only to be coming forward to the city council once instead of twice,” Cruz-Acosta explained.

It means that it would impact the efficiency of the leasing process for the city council.

This applies to leases up to 40 years.

PROPOSITION F

“Should section 3.11 relating to the initiative petition of the City Charter be amended to remove the requirement for a second petition, and institute a process for the public to initiate a City ordinance?”

Proposition F could potentially have financial impact on the city, and it relates to petitioning for city ordinances.

It includes several changes for ordinance petitions.

First, it would allow the ordinance petitions to be amended by the city council.

Once the petitioner gathers enough signatures on their ordinance petition and they present it to the city council, the council can propose some changes to be made to the original petition.

If the petitioner agrees to those changes, the ordinance can be approved.

“And then they don’t have to go back out and get a second round of signatures. They can move forward. It becomes an ordinance and there is no need to go out to ballot,” Cruz-Acosta explained.

The charter currently does not allow for amendments.

According to the current charter if the city council does not agree with the verbiage of the petition, the petitioner can still move forward with that ordinance petition, but they need to go through another round of collecting signatures and then the ordinance is placed on the ballot and the voters decide on it.

If Proposition F passes it would also mean that the ordinances could be voted on in special elections instead of just general election, as is currently stated in the charter, according to Cruz-Acosta.

This would happen if the city council does not approve the ordinance petition and the petitioner does not agree on the amendments.

“If a [ordinance] proposition was to be brought forward it is likely it would be during the off-cycle [election] period which would mean that there would be a cost associated to the city,” Cruz-Acosta.

She said that the last several special elections have cost the city between $650,000 to a million dollars.

While general election is not funded by the city.

Early voting starts on Monday April 24, 2023, and ends on Tuesday, May 2.

Election day is on Saturday, May 6.

You can find all the early voting locations on El Paso County Elections Department’s website.

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