Stafford Charter Review Commission backs mayor reporting changes and formalizes mayor pro tem selection

The Stafford Charter Review Commission on Monday night advanced a package of proposed changes to the city’s Home Rule Charter that would require the mayor’s annual report to list unaccomplished goals and how the administration plans to complete them, formalize a tenure-based order for selecting the mayor pro tem with a supermajority override for exceptions, and limit the mayor pro tem to a one‑year, nonconsecutive term.

Commissioners opened consideration of Articles 1 through 10 and agreed to move through each article in order and to limit discussion on that block to one hour. After debate, the commission voted to add a new provision asking the mayor, in the annual report, to identify goals from the prior reporting period that were not accomplished and provide the reasons and proposed strategies to finish them. “We failed to actually hear as a public all the goals that did not get accomplished and the reasons for them not getting…