The Charter Revision Commission wanted to have greater public outreach, with possible mailings and an online survey, while also deciding how it would conduct its business over the next months, as discussions continued at the May 13 meeting.

Most immediately, with 32 possible Charter changes to review, the charges will be organized into groups and reviewed; 16 of them at the Wednesday, June 10 meeting, and the other 16 at the Wednesday, July 8 meeting.

It was not specified what the groupings will be of the charges, or which charges will be discussed at which meeting.

At the April meeting, the CRC planned to divide itself into informal groups to do background work on possible revisions, however, that idea was put to the wayside at the May 13 meeting.

"We will discuss all of them at the meetings," said Chairman Maureen Crick Owen.

Commission member Peter Schwarz said that the group was small enough that they could take on all the charges in a series and discuss them.

Commission member Barney Molloy discussed having an online survey as well as mailings sent out with tax bills or water and sewer bills. They would be sent out with existing mailings because the commission has no budget to spend on its own mailings.

Molloy wanted to get input from the public before extended discussions among the commission become a "closed loop."

The commission unanimously approved its first motion, to require a supermajority of six out of the nine members to approve any change.

While there were some concerns over what would happen when multiple commission members were absent, the commission decided to stick with the supermajority of the whole board so that the public would see that the approved changes are "apolitical," as commission member Tracey Pertoso said, and have broad support on the commission.

"The optics will be that the group really believes in each change, and they aren't just squeaking by," said Pertoso.

"The nature of what we are trying to accomplish necessitates at least two-thirds of us agree at all times," said Molloy.

Crick Owen said everything needs to be "zipped up" by June 2027, to have everything ready for the November 2027 elections. The changes were originally going to be on the April budget referendum.

"This commission has more time than originally planned," said Crick Owen.

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.