After a marathon five-hour-plus meeting November 4 during which the Legislative Council completed its final review of a charter revision draft, Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob said she was hopeful that suggested changes sent back for consideration would be completed in time for council members who charged the Charter Revision Commission to approve a final overhaul of the community’s constitutional document.

While the charter commission is on a 30-day time clock to act on any of the council’s requested changes, many of which are nonsubstantive according to Ms Jacob, she is hopeful the commissioners will review and act on those proposed adjustments and return the draft for final approval at the current council’s last meeting November 18.

A newly elected council will be sworn in and seated December 1.

One of the requested changes was to tied to a move to eliminate town meetings as a means of passing large taxpayer expenditures. The current charter stipulates a town meeting must be convened to pass any public expenditure in excess of $10 million.

Ms Jacob explained that in eliminating town meetings to authorize spending, the revision now leaves any such authorizations of spending up to voters to consider each April. She said voters would be asked to vote on any single capital spending measure in excess of $1.5 million.

There is also a provision in the draft permitting special referendums if needed, to approve or reject big-ticket emergency expenditures that may develop between April budget referendum cycles.

Another key request was for the charter commissioners to significantly shorten and simplify Section 8, which deals with the purchase, sale, or leasing of town property. Ms Jacob said the proposed language currently amounts to about ten percent of the entire revised charter.

The council as well as a number of town officials believe much of that language can be refined out, and plugged into either town regulations or ordinances instead of being memorialized in the charter.

In an earlier meeting, First Selectman Pat Llodra and Director of Planning George Benson both expressed that the revised charter is supposed to be more simple and user-friendly, and the extensive language proposed in Section 8 was protracted, potentially confusing. and ambiguous.

School Board Party Split

Following one of the longest debates of the evening November 4, the council voted 8-4 requesting charter commissioners fashion a “standalone option” asking voters to weigh in on the minimum minority party makeup of the Board of Education of 4-3.

It has been interpreted that the existing charter mirrors state statutes permitting a 5-2 party split.

By putting that individual question to voters as part of a larger raft of revisions that will appear for voter authorization on the November 2016 Presidential ballot, council representatives believe it will not play a role in jeopardizing most or all of the remaining revisions voters will be asked to authorize.

If that standalone revision passes, the minority representation on the seven-member school board will change to 4-3. If that standalone measure fails, and is not included in the overall revision, the school board party makeup simply reverts back to the statutory 5-2 split.

During a wide ranging discussion leading up to the vote, several council members briefly suggested other, more specific changes to address representation on the school board. Those suggestions included increasing the number of board members to eight, reducing the board to six, even assigning school board representatives to either council or voting districts versus drawing from the community at large.

Virtually all of the council members involved in the discussion promoted an overarching concern about giving voters the strongest voice in determining which candidates would best serve the town’s school system, while administering a budget that typically represents more than two-thirds of annual taxpayer expenditures.

Discussion began with an extended review of concerns from Councilman Ryan Knapp, who argued against incorporating a change to a 4-3 minority representation, saying the change could bring “unforeseen implications,” while the current and previous school boards seldom if ever split their votes along party lines.

He gave ultimate credit to voters, who seat what they collectively believe are the most qualified candidates regardless of party affiliation, adding that the previous day’s election seated a new school board that will have a 4-3 party division for at least the next two years.

Mr Knapp argued that political town committees only run as many candidates as they can get seated, so as not to pit those candidates against each other on the ballot. But in a 4-3 scenario, “town committees would put forward [fewer] candidates and voters will have less choice.”

“Taking choice away from voters and giving it to the [town committees] will only polarize the Board of Education along party lines,” he said, adding that those committees might then favor endorsing candidates who most closely espouse the party line versus a more moderate contender.

Mr Knapp also said that giving more authority to the town committees is a “slap in the face to the 38 percent of our population who are unaffiliated.”

“They are the ones who will pick the most moderate candidates and swing elections,” he said.

At press time, charter commission Chairman Jeff Capeci had not determined the date or location of where his panel will meet to deliberate and act on the councils proposed adjustments to the draft.