McKinney City Council will ask voters for term limit extension and pay raise

Voters in McKinney will decide whether to give council members a raise and extend their terms after an ordinance passed Tuesday to put four charter amendments on the ballot on Nov. 5.

The four proposed city charter amendments include a measure to increase council member term limits from two consecutive four-year terms to three. Another measure would increase council member salaries to a $750 monthly stipend and the mayor's salary to $1,000 per month if passed.

The other two proposals would amend the charter to reflect new state laws passed since the last charter amendment election in 2019, and would remove provisions and policies the city no longer follows.

The vote to add these proposed amendments to the ballot passed 4-1, with only Councilman Justin Beller voting against.

The measure was passed without any discussion among council members.

Only one member of the audience spoke about the proposed amendments. Debbie Lindstrom said she believed term limits promote new ideas and protect democracy, and that the charter election would waste time and resources.

“Your primary duty is to act in the best interests of the public, the people who have elected you to these positions of trust and responsibility,” Lindstrom said. “This proposed amendment, however, appears to prioritize the interests of those in power over those of the general public.”

Lindstrom, a frequent speaker and critic of election integrity at Collin County Commissioners' Court, spoke on behalf of the Collin County chapter of Citizens Defending Freedom, a group that regularly spreads misinformation about the 2020 election at commissioners' court meetings.

Currently, McKinney council members get $50 per meeting. The mayor gets $100 per meeting.

If the proposal is adopted, it will only apply to newly elected council members, not to current elected administrators.

The vote comes two weeks after the Citizen Charter Review Committee — which the council appointed in May to review the city charter — issued its recommendations for the November city charter elections. One of their recommendations was to increase the salaries of council members and the mayor.

But the 21 members of the charter committee failed to reach a consensus on term limits. A majority favored retaining some form of term limits, with 11 saying they favored the proposed increase from two consecutive terms to three. Only seven committee members said they favored eliminating term limits.

Under current city charter rules, council members and the mayor can serve a maximum of 16 nonconsecutive years in office. They can serve two consecutive terms in two positions, with a one-year waiting period before running for a second seat.

If the charter amendment passes, elected city officials in McKinney would be able to serve for a maximum of 24 nonconsecutive years.

Voters in McKinney elected Mayor George Fuller to his second term in 2021. Bridgette Wallis, who McKinney Burger to Burger blogcriticized the proposal in an earlier interview with KERA News.

“It's very selfish to extend your own term while you're still in office, when no one in the public has said anything about it,” Wallis said.

Fuller denies any ambition to run for another term as mayor, but he has said he disagrees with the term limit, saying he believes the voters should decide.

Under current charter rules, he could still run for an at-large or district position a year after his second term. But he said at a February City Council meeting that he is not interested.

“I have repeatedly stated that I do not believe I will run for re-election,” Fuller said.

Council members considered calling a charter amendment election at a Feb. 6 meeting and holding the vote on May 4 during the city bond election. Instead, they decided to wait to call a charter amendment vote until the November election, when turnout is highest.

The last day to register to vote for the November 5 elections, the deadline is October 7. The deadline for requesting a ballot by mail is October 25.

Have a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.

Caroline Love is a Report for America corps member for KERA News.

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