{"id":49093,"date":"2018-12-04T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T20:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=49093"},"modified":"2024-10-25T09:12:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:12:55","slug":"austin-community-college-asks-state-legislature-to-provide-option-to-end-trustee-runoff-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2018\/12\/04\/austin-community-college-asks-state-legislature-to-provide-option-to-end-trustee-runoff-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Community College asks state Legislature to provide option to end trustee runoff elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community Impact:\u00a0Austin Community College asks state Legislature to provide option to end trustee runoff elections<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

By Jack Flagler<\/a>   | 7:38 pm Dec. 3, 2018 CST<\/p>\n

On Dec. 11 voters across six counties will decide between candidates Stephanie Gharakhanian and Sarah Mills for the final seat on the Austin Community College District board of trustees.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile ACC\u2019s board has decided to ask the Texas state Legislature to provide the district with the option to make it the final ACC board of trustees runoff election.<\/p>\n

ACC\u2019s board voted Dec. 3 with an 8-0 vote\u2014with trustee Julie Ann Nitsch abstaining\u2014to include an item on its legislative agenda asking lawmakers to amend the state\u2019s education code to provide the option for community college districts to hold plurality elections for their respective boards.<\/p>\n

The current system of election by majority for ACC\u2019s board of trustees mirrors elections for public officials in the city of Austin and Austin ISD. If no candidate for the ACC board of trustees receives 50 percent of the total vote a runoff election is held between the top two vote-getters.<\/p>\n

Unlike public school districts within the state of Texas, the state\u2019s education code does not give community college districts the ability to decide between the current majority system and a plurality election\u2014in which the candidate with the highest total number of votes would receive the board of trustees seat without the need for a runoff election.ACC argues that runoff elections impose an \u201cunnecessary financial burden\u201d on the district and burdens voters by making them return to the polls.<\/p>\n

ACC\u2019s board of trustees members serve six-year terms, and elections are held every two years. The 2018 election is the third consecutive ACC election to go to a runoff. The district said the cost to administer the runoff elections was $397,579 in 2014 and $445,692 in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start spending a half million dollars on something like this, it doesn\u2019t seem like the best use of our money,\u201d said trustee Mark Williams.<\/p>\n

In the 2017 legislative session a bill introduced by Rep. Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, to allow community college districts to conduct plurality elections passed both the Texas House and Senate. However, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the bill.<\/p>\n

In a 2017 statement Abbott said plurality elections would result in the selection of candidates who \u201creceived a small percentage of voter support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese elections have important consequences for property owners and for junior colleges,\u201d Abbott said in the 2017 statement. \u201cThey should not be treated like second-tier elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trustee Nan McRaven disagreed with the governor\u2019s interpretation of the 2017 bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Is about our fiduciary responsibility. This about the cost to our communities and taxpayers. It\u2019s really hard for me to understand how Governor Abbott could not be for those things,\u201d McRaven said Dec. 3.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 11 runoff election will be held in conjunction with the Austin City Council runoff elections in three districts of the city, as well as an election to decide one board of trustees seat for Austin ISD.<\/p>\n

In those areas the other entities holding runoff elections will share election costs with ACC, according to Mary Beth Malcolm, ACC executive vice president of campus operations and public affairs. However, Malcolm said in the rest of the community college\u2019s district area where there are no other runoff elections, ACC will absorb the full cost of administering the runoff election.<\/p>\n

In the November election, Gharakhanian, an attorney for the Workers Defense Project, received 44.6 percent of the vote while Mills, director of public policy and government relations at the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice, received 35.4 percent of the vote. With neither candidate reaching the 50 percent majority threshold, the runoff was called. A third candidate, Douglas Gibbins, received 19.9 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community Impact:\u00a0Austin Community College asks state Legislature to provide option to end trustee runoff elections By Jack Flagler   | 7:38 pm Dec. 3, 2018 CST On Dec. 11 voters across six counties will decide between … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[274,331,1270,3305,249],"class_list":["post-49093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acc-in-the-news","category-business-and-community","tag-board-of-trustees","tag-community-impact","tag-runoff","tag-trustee-election","tag-trustees"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}