Matt Orlando.City of Chandler Council member

Edmundo Mendez, Jr.

OPINION

Déjà vu all over again: CUSD bond ignores voter concerns

The City Charter is essentially Chandler’s “constitution.” From time to time, it needs updates to address ambiguities or improve clarity so our community continues to function with transparency and fairness.

For these reasons, the City Council placed two important Charter amendments on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Proposition 410 rectifies newly created confusion over Council and Mayor terms by:

• Ensuring experienced Councilmembers who serve two terms are then eligible to run for Mayor, the historical practice for over sixty years. The last three persons to serve as Mayor all served two full terms on the Council and then were elected Mayor.

• Limiting Mayors or Councilmembers to the current two terms for those specific offices.

• Establishing a combined service cap of 16 consecutive years as Mayor and/or Councilmember before requiring a four-year break.

• Clarifying how resignations and partial terms are treated under term-limit rules.
These updates remove ambiguity, provide clarity for everyone and ensure consistent application of term limits moving forward.

Proposition 411 addresses Charter language about the hiring and removal of Chandler’s City Manager by:

• Clarifying that the Manager serves at the pleasure of the City Council.

• Empowering the City Council to remove the Manager for whatever reason by a majority vote in a public meeting.

• Requiring severance pay for a Manager be established in the contract between the City Council and the City Manager.

These changes are intended to align the Charter with modern best practices in local governance and ensure accountability between the City Council and its appointed administrator.

I ask all residents to vote Yes on both Propositions 410 and 411 and encourage your involvement in shaping the ways we govern ourselves as a community.

Additional details and the text of the proposed amendments are available on the City of Chandler’s Special Election webpage.

Editor’s note: Matt Orlando has served six terms on the Chandler City Council, the last two of which have been continuous since 2019. He has filed a statement of interest to run for mayor in 2026.

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