Council Names

Charter Revision Panel

By John Voket

Quickly and unanimously, the Legislative Council seated, charged, and empowered a new Charter Revision Commission July 11. The nine-member panel, eight of whom attended the council’s meeting to be sworn in, will begin meeting Monday, July 16.

The new commission is made up of two unaffiliated voters, three Democrats, and four Republicans. Dr George Coleman, Michelle Embree Ku, Anthony Filiato, John Godin, Robert Hall, Craig Lehecka, James Ritchie, George Schmidt, and Allan Song will dig in immediately with only about a month to complete reviewing the four-point charge.

The tight turnaround is required because the council hopes to see any the recommended and approved revisions appear on the November presidential election ballot. This will ensure that the requisite number of voters will cast ballots on the revisions.

A charter revision attempt on similar budget ballot went before voters in March 2011, but after the recommended revisions received endorsement by a majority of voters, the voter turnout did not meet the minimum required by law to legally initiate those charter changes.

The significant amount of data gathered for that proposed revision may be of great assistance to the new commission, because the charge will be to review and make recommendations on the same considerations: whether to split the budget, and whether the ballot will offer nonbinding advisory questions to budget voters.

Charge committee Chairman Dan Wiedemann said the current initiative mirrors the last commission’s charge, except for the stepped up turnaround date of August 20 for the panel to complete its research and to provide the council with recommendations.

The four-point charge specifically asks the commissioners to consider splitting or “bifurcating” the budget between the town and school district; to include questions regarding whether a negative vote on each part of the budget is because it is too low or too high; a ballot containing a check box to approve the budget along with boxes to indicate whether the budget is being rejected because it is too low or too high; or any reasonable combination of those considerations.

In moving to seat the endorsed commissioners, the council’s selection committee Chair Paul Lundquist recognized The Bee for providing both editorial and advertising notice about the need for volunteers to conduct the charter review. That promotion drew what Mr Lundquist described as “22 highly qualified candidates.”

Mr Lundquist also supported his committee’s decision to seat nine members, saying that the summer period during which meetings will be held could pose scheduling conflicts, and he wanted to be certain the proceedings progressed with both continuity, and the quorum required to legally conduct meetings.

The panel has already determined it will meet Monday, July 16, at 7:30, presumably in the municipal center council chambers to elect its leadership and set a date for a public hearing that must be held before the group can begin formal deliberations.

Speaking to his motion, Mr Lundquist said, “We wanted to have a mix of backgrounds, skills, and mindset — those with experience with town government as well as new volunteers — all with the goal of seating a well-balanced group.

“In the end, we settled on nine candidates, all of which were agreed upon unanimously by the appointment committee,” Mr Lundquist said. “We have an extremely talented group of members with very diverse backgrounds. Within our mix of commission nominees we have PhDs, MBAs, lawyers, a scientist, researcher, IT and financial professionals, a former superintendent of schools, a college professor, and the acting commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Education.

“The group includes both younger and retired — all in all, a good cross-section of Newtown,” he continued. “Two individuals have been involved in charter revision work for Newtown, one of whom played a role in last year’s effort; six candidates are new volunteers to town commissions or councils; and three are experienced volunteers with our local town government,” he added.