Here are the headlines Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe read on-air this week:
Bumpy start for the Charter Review Committee
The city’s new charter committee got off to a rough start last week, stalling after 20 minutes of debate while trying to elect a chair.
All 14 members reported for the first meeting Thursday. After a brief orientation about their mission to evaluate possible changes to the city charter, the committee members split 7-7 whether to elect a former city council member or a prominent community volunteer as their chair.
The group elected Michelle Jones as chair pro tem. A local real estate attorney, she was one of the mayor’s two delegates to the committee. Jones will lead the meetings until the group made another attempt to elect a chair.
Earlier this month, the mayor questioned whether three of the people being nominated by other council members were appropriate for the committee work, citing their connections to the local Democratic Party. But other council members pushed back and all three people were eventually appointed.
The committee could make big changes to the way the city is governed. They could recommend that the city council adds more seats or that council members serve longer terms. Such changes would require new council district boundaries, which could re-open wounds after two, tit-for-tat recall elections that followed council redistricting two years ago.
But the charter committee will also consider new conditions for recall elections and a few other general governance matters. The door is also open for the committee—and the public—to propose additional issues in how the city is governed.
The committee will generally meet every other Thursday beginning at 5:30 p.m. The agendas will be posted on the city’s website, the proceedings will be live-streamed, and the video is being archived for later viewing. Each minute will have five 2-minute slots for the public to make comments to the committee on its work. Each committee member also has a city email address to receive correspondence.
The committee’s next meeting is Thursday, Aug. 8. The committee is expected to wrap up its work by October and submit recommendations to the City Council in November.
The last time voters approved changes to the city charter was in 2017. This next charter election is expected to be called for May 3, 2025.
More information at cityofdenton.com.
Court calendar
Attorneys for the prosecution and the defense appear close to a plea deal for two Denton ISD elementary school principals facing misdemeanor charges stemming from the spring primaries. A former candidate for state senate made a criminal complaint about the pair, claiming they used the school’s email system illegally.
Plea hearings for both Lindsay Lujan and her husband, Jesus Lujan, are scheduled in mid-August. Jesus Lujan remains the principal at Borman Elementary. Lindsay Lujan was recently promoted to the district’s director of special programs.
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About a week ago, prosecutors began issuing subpoenas in the felony bribery trial of a former employee with the Denton Central Appraisal District. Stephanie Collette Johnson was indicted in 2020 in connection with a scheme to mis-classify taxable properties as having a religious exemption.
The subpoenas went to nine witnesses scheduled to appear for a trial beginning October 28, more than a year after the first jury trial fell apart. District Judge Bruce McFarling allowed Johnson to dismiss her defense attorney, Craig Watkins, moments before that criminal trial began. The judge agreed that Watkins appeared unwell and unable to do the job. A former Dallas County district attorney, Watkins died in December.
McFarling later agreed to appoint an attorney to represent Johnson, who claimed indigence.
More information on all three of these cases at justice.dentoncounty.com.
New hours at South Branch, The Forge Makerspace
Beginning Thursday, business hours will change at the South Branch Library and for The Forge Makerspace inside North Branch Library.
The new hours for South Branch are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. South Branch will still be open Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The new hours of the Forge Makerspace are reduced overall, but add a day to match user demand. The makerspace is open Tuesday evenings and for several hours mid-day on Thursdays and Fridays. Saturday hours are still 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More information at library.cityofdenton.com.
City Hall earns family-friendly workplace designation
Denton City Hall got top marks from a new network of business and government leaders that is promoting family-friendly policies as a good business practice. More information at bestplace4workingparents.com.
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Local News and Weekend Edition scripts are published on Substack. Subscribe for free at peggyheinkelwolfe.substack.com and follow live microblogging of Local News on Mastodon @phwolfe940@denton.social. Peggy is an award-winning, veteran journalist and a Denton County resident since 1993.