Background
On November 2, 2021, voters in Donna, Texas approved amendments to the City Charter that increased the terms for the offices of Mayor, City Council Places 1 and 3, and Municipal Judge from three years to four years. However, the City Council did not formally enter an order adopting these amendments in the city’s records until June 2025—nearly four years later. In November 2023, the incumbents holding these offices were elected, and relators Salinas Flores and Muñoz contended that, because the amendments had not been formally adopted at the time of election, the incumbents were elected for three-year terms under the prior charter, not four-year terms.
Relators petitioned for a writ of mandamus to compel the City Council to order a November 2026 general election for these offices, arguing that the incumbents’ terms should expire in November 2026 rather than November 2027. Under Texas Local Government Code § 9.005(b), a charter amendment does not take effect until the municipality’s governing body enters an order declaring adoption.
The Court’s Holding
The Texas 13th Court of Appeals denied the petition for writ of mandamus. The court acknowledged that the City Council should have acted with greater formality and clarity by entering a specific written order, resolution, or ordinance, and should have certified the amendments more promptly. However, the court found that the record demonstrated the City Council had entered an order in the city’s records at a special meeting on November 8, 2021, declaring that the 2021 amendments to the City Charter were adopted.
The court determined that this entry in the municipality’s records satisfied the statutory requirement of Texas Local Government Code § 9.005(b), even if the adoption was not as formally memorialized as best practice would suggest. Because the amendments were properly adopted in the city’s records by November 2021, the incumbents elected in November 2023 were elected for four-year terms, and relators failed to establish a clear legal right to the mandamus relief sought.
Key Takeaways
- A charter amendment takes effect when a municipality enters an order in its official records declaring adoption, per Texas Local Government Code § 9.005(b).
- Courts will examine the municipality’s actual records to determine whether an adoption order was entered, even if the formal procedures were not observed with complete clarity or formality.
- Relators seeking mandamus relief to compel an election must demonstrate a clear legal right to performance of the act sought, which includes establishing when charter amendments actually became effective.
- While municipalities should follow formal procedures with explicit written orders when adopting charter amendments, substantial compliance with the statutory requirement may suffice if the order is documented in the municipality’s records.
Why It Matters
This decision provides important guidance on the timing of charter amendments under Texas municipal law. The court’s holding that an adoption order entered in a municipality’s records—even if not accompanied by a separate formal resolution or ordinance—satisfies the statutory requirement in TLG Code § 9.005(b) means that charter amendments may take effect based on informal entries in municipal records. This underscores that form matters less than substance: cities should maintain clear documentation of charter adoption, but the absence of formal written instruments does not necessarily invalidate adoption if evidence exists in the city’s records.
For practitioners challenging municipal elections or the terms of elected officials, this case establishes that challenging the timing of charter amendments requires careful examination of the municipality’s actual records at the time the charter was voted on by citizens, not simply relying on when formal adoption documents were later prepared.
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