Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Charter Departments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Charter commission favors moving department definitions into ordinances, keeps transition safeguards
Summary
The Bridgeport Charter Revision Commission agreed to add a chapter authorizing the city council to create and re-create departments by ordinance and to include transition language so existing charter provisions stay in effect until ordinances replace them.
The Bridgeport Charter Revision Commission advanced a plan on Aug. 29 to remove routine department-detail language from the charter and leave creation and alteration of departments to the city council through ordinance while preserving a transition so existing provisions do not disappear overnight. Commissioners said the change is meant to keep the charter as a high-level founding document and let ordinances handle day-to-day departmental structure.
Tom, a commission presenter, described the approach and cited examples used by other Connecticut municipalities, saying the proposal would add a new chapter that "here is the authority to create departments of the city" and that the charter would keep legacy language until the council re-enacts those functions by ordinance. The commission asked the city attorney to identify any special powers granted to the city by the legislature that must remain in the charter.
Commissioners agreed to a schedule for detailed work on specific chapters and to re-number and combine several chapters (for example, combining bonding and long-term debt into the budget and fiscal controls chapter). The commission voted to move obsolete language from a Department of Land Use, Construction and Review into appropriate, existing departments (primarily planning and zoning) and to relocate training requirements for land-use boards into the boards-and-commissions section.
Why it matters: Commissioners said the change reduces the need to revise the charter for routine administrative details, gives elected officials the flexibility to modernize departments by ordinance, and preserves statutory protections that the legislature has given the city. Commissioners directed staff to draft clear transition language so that any charter provision stays in effect until an ordinance replaces it.
What’s next: The commission will receive revised draft language from the city attorney and continue chapter-by-chapter review at the next session. The commission also agreed to a plan to renumber chapters across the draft to reflect the new structure.
