Austin's City Council is on the cusp of potentially changing the game for local governance, as it mulls over a set of recommendations that could end up on the November ballot. Last year, a Charter Review Commission was set up to dive into issues with the city charter, mainly surrounding citizen-initiated petitions and the process for recalling council members. On Thursday, the city council will decide whether these proposed changes will be put to voters, as reported by KXAN.

The most notable change is the proposed adjustment of the signature threshold required to get petitions onto the ballot. Currently, it's a flat 20,000 signatures or 5% of registered voters, whichever is less - an easier feat given Austin's population boom. The Charter Review Commission has suggested switching this to a solid 3.5% of registered voters. On a contentious note, what would have happened last year, when two police oversight propositions – sharing a name but not content – ended up on the ballot, inspired another recommendation. The Commission advises that the proposal with the most votes should win out in such cases of conflicting initiatives. The proposals were presented to the Council last week and also include raising the signature requirement for recalling city council members from the current 10% to 15% of registered voters in a council member's district, as detailed by The Austin Monitor.

While those in favor of the 3.5% threshold argue it reflects the city's growing electorate, five commissioners vehemently disagreed, fearing it would bias the process in favor of well-funded organizations while hindering genuine grassroots movements. They expressed concern that the change might "eventually create an inequitable system and make it more difficult for organizers with fewer means," according to the Austin Monitor.