Voters in the city of Seguin face a list of 10 ballot issues in the upcoming election, propositions aimed at changing the city’s charter and the way business is done locally.

City leaders ask voters to take stands on issues surrounding term limits, rules on when city council meetings are held, bolster the city attorney’s office, publication of public notices and more.

At least four propositions deal with how the city notifies residents about important issues. Propositions C, G, I and J are concerned with rules requiring the city to publish information in the local newspaper. The propositions ask if voters want to get rid of the requirement and allow postings on the city’s website, social media and other less-concrete choices.

Cost is one of the factors that led to the propositions making the ballot, City Attorney Andy Quittner said.

“Not to denigrate newspapers because I take two or three of them everyday and read them, but the fact is, how many people read stuff in the newspapers anymore,” he said. “Here, we have two times a week. Sometimes, it’s difficult to hit the deadlines.”

The propositions include changes to the charter striking words like “in the official newspaper of the city of Seguin” and replacing them with “on the city’s website and as otherwise required by state law.”

Proposition G targets where notice of a budget hearing is published, changing the language to: “The council shall, in accordance with state law, fix the time and place for a public hearing on the budget, and publish notice of the budget hearing in the manner required by state law.”

Currently, the charter reads: “the council shall, in accordance with state law, fix the time and place for a public hearing on the budget, and publish notice of the budget hearing in the official newspaper of the city of Seguin.”

For longer than a century, state law has required governmental entities to publish such important notices in the newspaper of record to ensure accountability and governmental transparency. Times have changed and, Quittner said, so have Texas laws.

“When the laws change and say, ‘hey, you don’t have to do this and you don’t have to do that,’ you can publish it on the website,” he said.

No such laws have been changed, said Laura Lee Prather, a partner attorney at the law firm Haynes and Boone, LLP in Austin. The firm represents the Texas Press Association and provides consult on issues where news organizations across the state are concerned.

Public notice is an evolving area of law in place to keep citizens informed and knowledgeable about what their governments are doing, she said. Law still requires notice in a newspaper for proposed amendments to a city’s home-rule charter, public notice of budget hearings and approved ordinances, Prather said.

“To ensure that voters are fully informed about potential changes to a home-rule charter, the Texas Local Government Code requires municipalities to publish a substantial copy of any proposed amendments, along with any anticipated fiscal impact, in a general interest newspaper,” she said. “This notice must be published on the same day in each of two successive weeks, with the first occurring at least 14 days before the election. … Similarly, a municipality must publish notice of an upcoming budget hearing in a physical newspaper, per Texas Local Government Code 102.0065(a), and municipalities must publish adopted ordinances in a physical newspaper.”

The law helps promote civic engagement by informing citizens about how their tax dollars are spent and how new ordinances affect the populace, Prather said. More, not less, public notice is in the best interest of Texans, she said.

“Publication in a general interest newspaper — which includes print and online publication — allows thousands more citizens to be informed about these important civic events,” Partner said. “Newspaper publication also provides a permanent and inalterable record of such notice, provided by a neutral purveyor. This permanent record benefits both citizens and governmental entities long beyond when a website may have been changed.”

No matter the outcome of the proposals on the November ballot, Prather said the Texas Press Association hopes the city of Seguin continues to honor its obligations under state law and keeps properly informing its citizens about what happens in city government.

“We want to be transparent,” Quittner said. “We want people to have access, but in a city like this that has a two-day-a-week paper and things in the classifieds are way back, whether or not the fact that you published it (in the paper) is transparent, we could debate that.”

Propositions also on the ballot:

• Proposition A adjusts charter language regarding time spent serving on City Council after being appointed to fill a vacancy. If voters approve the proposition, a candidate can fill an appointed position up to two years without having it count against the eight-years citizens are allowed to serve on council.

• Proposition B if approved allows City Council to hold fewer than two meetings per month. Currently the charter demands council to hold at least two regular meetings in each month, but the proposition adopts different language and frees up the council to make its own decisions, Quittner said.

“Micromanaging, telling them what to do is going out of style in most cities,” he said. “They’re going to hold meetings. That’s not something you have to tell them to do.”

• Proposition D allows council to appoint associate judges and allows the presiding judge and associates judges to live outside city limits.

• Proposition E’s approval makes way for the city manager to allow the city attorney to appoint assistant city attorneys and puts the city attorney’s compensation in the hands of the city manager when proposing budget expenditures.

• Proposition F seeks voter approval to give city staff an additional two weeks each year to present the city budget to council.

• Proposition H changes the means by which the city provides copies of the budget to anyone requesting it. Electronic copies will be the preferred method of delivering copies of the budget but paper copies will be provided upon request if the proposition passes, Quittner said.

Dalondo Moultrie is the assistant managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at dalondo.moultrie@seguingazette.com .