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Charter Review Commission approves red-line version of charter, sends amendments to City Council
Summary
The Sunbury City Charter Review Commission voted unanimously to approve a red-line draft of proposed charter amendments — including restoring two sections, modifying language about the Clerk of Council, and adding an alternate clerk — and will forward the package to City Council for consideration.
The Sunbury City Charter Review Commission voted 6-0 on May 13 to approve a red-line draft of proposed charter amendments and send the package to City Council for consideration.
The vote will forward the commission’s consolidated changes — including the restoration of sections 13.03 and 13.04, language revisions on the Clerk of Council and the addition of an alternate clerk, and several conforming terminology edits (for example, replacing “municipality” with “city”) — for Council review and potential placement on the ballot.
The commission’s staff presenter, Rebecca (staff member), told the commission, “You should have received a red line, and my apologies because it's Daryl because on the table of contents, it's hard to you can't do the red line without having all the formatted formatted formatted formatted.” She explained the only substantive change since the last meeting was re-adding sections 13.03 and 13.04 because those provisions apply “not just to the liturgical part of it, but also to amendments,” and that the draft reverted the Clerk of Council language in 3.04 to earlier wording after a discussion of the Loudermill-related right-to-hearing issue and removed the new 3.05 language that had been modeled on protections used for the city manager and some police chiefs.
During public comment, Paul Holler (resident) asked the commission to revisit a prior discussion under section 4.13 about technical codes and to confirm whether staff recommendations on that item had been provided: “If you haven't, I think tonight's a good night to do it. It's my understanding that the staff does have a recommendation, and I would certainly like to hear it myself.” Rebecca acknowledged the item was in the red line and said the commission would consider the package as presented.
Commission members discussed a small clerical typo identified on section 5.02 and confirmed other conforming edits in the clean copy provided with the packet. The commission also discussed the distinction between the Clerk of Council — described in the draft as an at-will position with duties that do not, at present, reach the same level as the city administrator or chief of police — and positions the commission considered requiring additional procedural protections for.
Commissioner Nancy moved to approve the red-line draft and send it to City Council; Commissioner Matt seconded. Roll-call votes were recorded as Yes from Miss Crawford, Miss Heller, Mister Rentz, Mister Hochberg, Miss Stark and Mister Thomas. Chair Randy Rentz announced, “Motion passes.”
The commission concluded that, after forwarding the red-line draft, City Council may accept the package verbatim, modify it, or make additional edits; any council changes would be returned to the commission in the form of a further red line if necessary.
