By David Fortier
The Charter Review Commission will hold its final public hearing this Thursday, July 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Immediately following the hearing, the City Council will vote whether or not to include the recommendations from the commission on the November ballot.
Two Sundays ago charter review members Hal Kilby, Jack Krampitz and Michele Roalf sat down with me for a conversation about their experience on the commission, the proposed changes and ideas about the charter in general.
This is the first podcast resulting from that conversation which was conducted over an hour and a half. Each segment of the 5-part series is between 9 and 15 minutes long, roughly divided by topic and has been edited for length.
Among the topics to be considered are the following:
- Measures to prohibit unlawful workplace harassment by elected and appointed officials
- Reassigning the responsibility for sanitary sewers from Public Works to the Water Dept.
- Staggering Board of Education member terms
- Creating an oversight personnel committee and changing the Personnel Director’s title to Director of Human Resources
- Clarifying the language associated with bond issuance
- Renaming the joint board a joint meeting
In addition, the members discussed two items that did not make the cut:
- Extending the length of terms for elected officials from 2 to 4 years
- Abolishing term limits