On Friday, Feb. 12, District 5 City Councilman Willie “Bae” Lewis made a request for petition blanks with the city of Port Arthur. It is his hope that he can garner enough signatures with this petition drive to have an item placed on the November election that will change Port Arthur City Council Positions 7 and 8 from a majority to plurality vote.

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time he tried to get traction on this very same item. In 2015, Councilman Lewis filed paperwork with City Attorney Val Tizeno’s office to place a proposition on the November 2015 ballot to do the same thing. The difference was that at that time, he needed it to pass through Port Arthur City Council. It did not. In taking another stab at it, so to speak, he knows he will not get council to agree, so why not try to push it though another way?

Currently Positions 7 and 8 are elected by majority vote and are voted on by the entire city. Each is a three-year term. How this will change is, in an election contested by more than two candidates, plurality occurs when one candidate receives the most votes but not necessarily more than half the votes, or a majority. In addition, these positions change from a three-year term to a two-year term.

When Councilman Lewis and his followers are out in the community trying to get the signatures needed for this, they will tell you that this is being done as a “cost saving measure and will eliminate the need for runoff elections for these two seats.” And it will definitely do that, “IF” there was a runoff. The scenario however, most likely to come into play, will have these future elections for Positions 7 & 8 scheduled with elections for other seats that are, and will be, majority three-year terms, thus creating the need for runoff elections anyway.

Additionally, if passed in November, this change would mean the Port Arthur City Charter (A charter is a document that spells out the powers, duties and structures of government and the rights of citizens) would need to be changed. PACC is only allowed to make changes to its charter every two years. It should be noted, that not very long ago, in 2013, voters passed Proposition 6 by a whopping 87 percent to 17 percent, which changed the charter to do exactly the opposite of what Councilman Lewis is trying to push through. This change required all positions for Mayor and City Council be elected by majority vote. So why is he wanting to change only two seats now? Political agenda?

I ask you this, do we really want to make a change like this now? And then have to wait two more years to make additional needed changes? If we are going to make changes to the charter, we need to look at real long-term positive options for the betterment of our community.

The PACC owes it to the citizens of Port Arthur to create a committee that can take a look at two things and have them placed on the November ballot.

1. The possibility of reducing the number of seats on City Council from 9 to 7 or less. This will align Port Arthur with other communities in Texas that are relatively close to our population, and save the city a minimum of $36,000 per year.
2. Reducing the pay/income/reimbursement of the remaining City Council members by $1,000 or more per seat. Which will also put us in line with other communities our size, saving the city another $84,000 per year or more. This will also make these seats more of a volunteer position than political career income as it has been for some.

Together these changes could save the city close to $120,000 yearly. So if charter change is in the cards, let’s make real long-term positive change. Not politically motivated change.

Rich Macke is publisher of The Port Arthur News. Contact him at rich.macke@panews.com.