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LULAC threatens suit over single-member districts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 by Austin Monitor
Members of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) have approved a resolution calling on the City of
Mayor Lee Leffingwell received notice of the decision from local LULAC Director Marcelo Tafoya on Tuesday. According to Tafoya’s advisory, members of the national group approved a statement promising to fund the suit if their demand for single-member districts is not met by Dec. 31.
Meeting that deadline could prove difficult legally. Under the city charter, the city may only have charter elections once every two years. As Council Member Mike Martinez points out, the city had such an election in November 2008. At that time, a majority of the Council declined to place the item on the ballot even though both
During that election, voters approved a change to the charter related to the City Auditor’s term of office and rejected the Stop Domain Subsidies charter amendment, which was designed to block the city from making future tax rebate payments to the Domain.
Although some activists believe that last week’s ruling by a federal judge that
He noted that
Mayor Leffingwell said, “I’m sure that LULAC is suing because they feel that their percentage of the population should give them two seats on the Council.” He said he still supports single-member districts but “what I’ve said is my preference would be for a mixed system with single-member district augmented by some at-large members.”
Asked how many members he would like to see, Leffingwell said, “I’m sort of conflicted on that because I would also like to see the City Council kept relatively small so they could actually be more efficient and get things done.”
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