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Charter Review Committee approves amended charter recommendations, forwards package to city council
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Summary
At a public hearing on April 20, the Charter Review Committee approved a package of charter amendments—including a two‑year domicile requirement, clarified conviction/eligibility language, compensation increases for elected officials, and repeal of an obsolete transition article—and will send the recommendations to city council for further hearings.
The Charter Review Committee voted to approve a package of proposed charter amendments at a public hearing on April 20 and will forward the changes to the city council for additional hearings, the committee said.
The package reviewed by the committee includes several substantive edits. Mr. Stokes, who presented the proposals during the advertised public hearing, said the eligibility section (proposed Section 2.02) now requires a candidate to be domiciled in the city for two years and defines domicile as being physically present within the city for no less than 270 days in a 12‑month period. "We added the requirement that somebody be domiciled in the city for 2 years," he said, and the draft also clarifies that disqualifying convictions must be pardoned or expunged and that eligibility criteria must be met at the time of qualifying rather than at swearing‑in.
The committee also reviewed proposed compensation changes in Section 2.05. The transcript records the proposed ranges as the mayor moving from $450 to $750 and the vice mayor and council members from $300 to $600; the draft also includes an "elevator" (indexing) provision to tie future adjustments to the general employee cost‑of‑living. The committee discussion presented these figures as the updated base amounts and an indexing mechanism to avoid repeated charter amendments.
On vacancies and removal language in Section 2.08, Mr. Stokes said the draft removes a subsection that previously called for a special council hearing to remove a council member because "that's not allowed by state law. Only the governor can remove," he said, and the edit aligns local language with that state authority. The package also proposes repealing Article 6, a transition article the presenter described as obsolete and without practical effect.
With no members of the public attending in person or on Zoom, the committee moved to a voice vote. Mr. Stokes asked the committee to "take a vote to approve this," the chair called for all in favor, and members indicated assent; the motion passed. The committee did not record a roll‑call tally in the transcript; the vote was taken by voice and was noted as passed.
The committee confirmed the next scheduled meeting and second public hearing will be Tuesday, May 12. The approved package will go to the city council for the next stage of hearings and ordinance consideration.
The committee did not receive public testimony at this hearing and recorded no amendments to the proposed package during the meeting.
