I have not been able to find anything in our city charter that addresses how vacancies in city council are to be filled. It appears that our Texas Constitution says that there must be a special election within 120 days.
Texas local government code does have this provision:
Sec. 26.043. FILLING VACANCY IN ELECTIVE OFFICE IN MUNICIPALITY WITH POPULATION OF 384,000 OR MORE.
(c) If the municipality holds an election to vote on proposed amendments to its charter, it shall at that time submit a proposed charter amendment to provide a method for filling vacancies in elective offices.
We recently had an election to vote on proposed amendments to our charter.
Then again those state laws are probably only considered to be guidelines by our city staff.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Maybe City Council is waiting for instructions from the powerful folks who usually tell them what to do. They’re probably considering whether they even want to allow us to vote on vacancies.
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EP has a charter and is home rule. The Texas Local Government Code states Home Rule City (Local Gov’t Code, Chapter 26):
Term of office – 2 years/can opt for up to 4 (Tex. Const. Article XI, Section 11)*
Population – more than 5,000
Vacancies are filled as provided in charter.*
*A 3-year or 4-year term requires adoption by election (Art. XI, Sec.11, Tex.Const.); once adopted, vacancies must be filled by special election regardless of what the charter provides.
Thus, despite what the Charter could say, the Texas Constitution requires a special election since we have 4 year terms now.
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