Nothing Is Ever Easy: Charter Commission

The work of revising the city charter promises to be long and arduous--as it should be. After all, the charter establishes the structure of local government. The process of creating a charter commission to undertake the task is also proving to be long and arduous, not to mention contentious. Common Council president Margaret Morris, who is attempting to create a charter revision commission to review the city's charter, which has not been comprehensively reviewed and revised in more than fifty years, is being questioned and criticized for the way she has approached establishing a commission. In the following statement, Morris explains her efforts in the past four months.   

At the Informal Meeting of the Common Council in April, I announced that I was beginning the process of establishing a Charter Revision Commission and invited interested members of the community to submit letters of interest to me.

The following morning, I received the first expression of interest from a community member. Over the course of several weeks, I was contacted by other community members to discuss the Commission. Some decided not to pursue membership on the commission. My approach was to have members of the community volunteer, rather than personally selecting people. I did not reject any of the individuals who came forward.

At the July meeting of the Common Council, I presented a draft Local Law establishing the commission. At that time five community members had confirmed their interest in serving. I proposed a Commission made up of five community members, the President of the Common Council and the Majority Leader. In discussion, the Common Council suggested that there should be a community member from each ward and that the Common Council should be included in the appointment process.

At the August meeting of the Common Council, I submitted a revised Local Law which addressed both of these concerns, with a proposed Commission made up of seven community members, with at least one from each ward, the President of the Common Council and the Majority Leader. Appointment to the Commission would be in consultation with the Common Council.

Prior to the August meeting, I reached out to every member of the Common Council and reviewed with each member the roster of candidates who had stepped up to volunteer for the Commission. Despite repeated attempts on my part, I was unable to reach Councilmember Cousin. I did, however, include a community member that she had proposed for the Commission in the list of potential members.

In addition to reviewing the list of potential candidates with the Common Council members, I also reviewed it with Mayor Ferris.

At the August Formal Meeting this week, the Common Council voted to table the vote on the Commission pending further revisions. The formal process for appointment of members in consultation with the Common Council--a process that Council Member Foster asked about in the meeting--would have been an executive session of the Council to discuss the appointments. I explained that process at the meeting.

Throughout this process, my intention was to include interested community members in the Commission and specifically to avoid a process where I or any other member of the Council would personally select the Commission membership.