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After discussing the issue Tuesday night, members of the Citizens for Responsible government abandoned their plan for a city council member recall. Instead, the group will concentrate on revisions to Victoria’s city charter and trying to find members of the community to oppose the councilmen up for reelection next year.

“That’s where I am leaning. It’s more productive with the timing and everything,” said Russell Pruitt, a member of the group and chief speaker during the meeting.

Pruitt and 29 other men and women attended the meeting at the Victoria Electric Co-Op building. Initial discussion was on the recall petition with Pruitt speaking on the number of signatures needed to recall the candidates.

He then discussed the six charter amendments the group is proposing: term limits for the city council, reducing the number of signatures required for initiative and referendum petitions, having the county elections administrator instead of the city secretary certify all petitions, requiring the city attorney to run for office, changing the city’s elections from May to November to coincide with state elections and prohibiting the city council from spending tax money to defend indicted city officials.

“We’re trying to get the councilmen and the mayor to respond to the people,” Pruitt commented as he went through the list of amendments.

Rock Westfahl attended the meeting to see what people were thinking and how many were involved. He agrees with the notion that the charter amendments would be a better use of time than the recall petitions.

“Recall petitions seldom get anywhere,” the 52-year-old Memorial High School teacher said. “I can see the charter needing to be revised. Times have changed, the charter needs to change too.”

Regarding the city council positions up for election next year, Westfahl said finding people to run may be difficult.

“It’s easy to get people mad at the council but it’s hard to get people to run,” he said.

Serving on the city council is a thankless job and one that wields more power than people realize, Westfahl added.

“It pays for citizens to watch what they do.”

The meeting was good to hear people’s thoughts, Pruitt said. Any action they took, he wanted it to be the will of the group. After hearing comments from those in attendance, Pruitt put the issue of whether to pursue charter amendments or a recall to a vote. The group unanimously voted to purse charter amendments.

“We want to do the best we can for Victoria,” Pruitt said.

Bj Lewis is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6535 or bjlewis@vicad.com.