One of the first actions taken by the new Paris city Mayor A.J. Hashmi was to create a citizens committee to examine the city council elections and possible charter amendments.
Each council member appointed one member of the community to serve on the committee. The first item to be discussed by the committee, which met earlier this week, was to examine the possibility of a city-wide mayor election in Paris Texas.
According to Paris City Manager John Godwin, “Direct election of mayors is not at all uncommon in Texas, and a six member council elected by districts plus an at-large mayor is the most common composition.”
Godwin explains, “However, Paris was under court orders many years ago to create seven districts of a certain type to help ensure minority representation on the city council. Even though that plan is now very old, and a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision has reduced the Department of Justice’s oversight of cities in select states like Texas, there is the possibility that changing anything could inadvertently affect minority representation in a negative manner.”
Back in the 1970’s, a lawsuit was filed against the City of Paris which claimed that the city’s election process was discriminatory. Judge William Wayne Justice issued an order that the City could not have at-large council members, but instead each council member was to be elected from each of the seven single member districts. The purpose was to insure that each district of the city would be accurately represented by citizens that live in that district.
The citizens committee will meet again on Tuesday at 4pm at City Hall and is expected to look at moving city elections from May to November.