Lakeway’s Nov. 3 election just got a bit more contentious.
On Oct. 5, local residents officially formed the “Fix This Mess, Vote Yes” political action committee that prompts voters to approve the seven city charter amendments on the Nov. 3 ballot, a position they say will remedy conflicts between the local document and the Texas Constitution.
The group’s creation comes on the heels of the Sept. 8 filing by five of Lakeway’s former mayors that developed the Save Lakeway political action committee to oppose the charter amendments.
The Fix This Mess committee is chaired by resident Marsha Kish, with Georgia Migliuri serving as treasurer.
According to its website, Lakeway voters approved changing the City Council terms of office from a maximum of three, two-year terms to a maximum of two, three-year terms. However, city staff and officials erred in crafting the charter amendment since Lakeway would have had to create places, either at-large or divided into geographical districts, to be compliant with the Texas Constitution that requires such a provision when creating three-year terms.
That provision was never made a part of the ballot and city elections would be required to be won by a majority — or 50% of the votes plus one vote — instead of the plurality, in which the candidate with the most votes wins that the city has historically embraced. This scenario could create multiple run-off elections at a cost to the city.
The error was discovered just prior to Lakeway’s 2018 elections, with the Texas secretary of state advising officials to delay the amendment switching the terms to three years, instead adopting two-year terms until the city’s flawed election system could be corrected by a charter amendment in the Nov. 3 election.
At the time, the state office also advised local officials that, due to the error, some council members were serving out of sync with terms that met state law, requiring those terms be shortened.
Lakeway officials unanimously approved this year’s ballot propositions, measures intended to put the city back into compliance with state law.
“That’s the mess!,” the Fix This Mess website states. “These Charter Propositions will be on your ballots this November and you can help to finally put an end to this mess. Elections will go back to three, 2-year terms without a place system, avoiding costly run-off elections — just like it’s been done in Lakeway for 35 years. Problem solved.”
In opposing the charter amendments, the group of five former mayors cited mismanagement and ethical issues by the city’s current leadership, advocating residents reject every local ballot provision.
“Created by five ex-mayors, that (committee) kind of got my dander up,” Migliuri said.
She said the Save Lakeway website created by the former mayors includes an attack on current Mayor Sandy Cox.
“I felt that the ex-mayors’ time is over,” she said. “We elected people in office now and we should listen to why they put these propositions on the ballot.”
Migliuri said she felt it was important to let the public know the ballot measures are bipartisan and the Fix The Mess website’s message was derived from council members’ feedback.
“The city has become bitterly divided over this national election and I wanted to try to bring the city together by supporting these bipartisan propositions,” she said. “Every single council member approved these propositions and they come from both sides of the aisle.”
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