Date: Fri 07-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

charter-revision-hearing

Full Text:

Panel Slates Public Hearing On Charter Changes

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

The Charter Revision Commission will hold a public hearing on its recommended

changes to the town charter Tuesday at 8 pm at the Multipurpose Building on

Riverside Road.

The panel recently completed its task after spending the past 18 months

reviewing the charter and revising certain sections as it went along.

In the end, the commission made few significant changes to the charter. As one

member of the commission pointed out, Newtown remains the "land of steady

habits."

Another panel member joked that the commission will be remembered for creating

the town's traffic authority. The commission recently voted to give the town's

Police Commission jurisdiction over all traffic matters, a small change, but

one of few that were considered significant.

Charter member Mae Schmidle said part of the reason for so few changes may

have been because the commission agreed early on that eight votes would be

required to make a charter change. Problems with attendance made it especially

difficult to get changes through, she said.

The proposed changes made by the charter revision panel include:

Giving more representation to the minority party on the Legislative Council by

limiting the number of members of any one political party to just three from

each district.

Giving the council authority to transfer $150,000 rather than $50,000 without

going to a town meeting.

Requiring both the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education to submit

separate operating and capital budgets to the council at budget time.

Changing the number of council members needed to conduct a meeting from 6 to 7

and requiring an affirmative vote of at least eight when adopting, repealing

or amending.

Changing the charter to allow for three council members to run at-large rather

than by district. Nine candidates would continue to run as district members,

with each of the town's three districts electing three candidates.

Eliminating the Saturday morning budget hearing and adjusting the budget

calendar.

There were also some technical changes made to the charter in regard to

employment due process.

Also notable are the changes the commission did not make. They declined to

make the town clerk an appointed position rather than elected, and they

rejected a proposal to separate the Planning & Zoning Commission into two

commissions. They also declined to replace the first selectman with a town

manager, and they voted down a plan for automatic referendums on issues that

require a town vote.

The panel also rejected a plan to hold separate votes on proposed school and

town budgets. Members had considered changing the number of school board

members to an odd number, but on the advice of several residents, voted to

keep membership the same to avoid establishing a political imbalance on the

board.

Several issues that the commission was expected to address, but never voted

on, include: changing the Board of Selectmen from three to five members to

allow for more debate, and eliminating the Board of Selectmen and creating a

first selectman/council form of government.

The proposed charter changes are not final. The proposal can still be changed

after the public hearing. The final recommendations of the Charter Revision

Commission must be submitted to the Legislative Council later this month.