A year ago, inspired by the Citizens' Initiative for Charter Change, the idea of revising the city charter, enacted in 1921 and amended in its entirety in 1973, was on everyone's mind.
Ferris was elected. Day One was 110 days ago, but so far nothing has been heard from the mayor about charter change. Last night at the informal meeting of the Common Council, however, Council president Margaret Morris announced that she was starting work on assembling a Charter Commission to consider charter revision. She is inviting anyone interested in serving on this group tasked with the serious work of studying the charter and recommending revision to send a letter of interest to councilpres@cityofhudson.org.
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re: Charter
ReplyDeleteBetween the 11 Council seats, 5 Supervisor seats, the Mayor, and the Treasurer, Hudson demands 18 local legislative politicians. That means there is roughly one legislative seat for every 200 eligible adults in the city…and that’s before you even try to staff the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, and the various executive offices.
Compare that to the national landscape. In major American cities, the ratio is often one council member per 50,000 to 100,000 residents. Even in typical American small towns, the ratio hovers closer to one representative per 1,500 to 3,000 citizens.
Hudson’s ratio of 1-to-200 is statistically absurd. It requires almost everyone in town to suit up (or pass "Go" and collect money) just to keep the lights on.
From:
https://www.hudsoncommonsense.com/hoopdreams
Thank you, Gossips!
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