Council Seeks Members For

Charter Revision Panel

By John Voket

Almost three years ago to this day, members of the Newtown Legislative Council acted like they never wanted to hear the words “charter revision” again. But this week, the council agreed to seek applicants who will make recommendations on the town’s next round of charter changes.

A relatively speedy public session of the Legislative Council transpired Wednesday evening before doors were closed to the press to allow for an executive session on the school administrators contract arbitration. During the public portion of the meeting, the council heard information from Finance Director Ben Spragg and Finance Board Chairman John Kortze about the town’s recent application to Moody’s Investment Service for a municipal bond rating upgrade. (See related story on page A1.)

After learning the town failed to achieve that bond rating upgrade, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest savings that may have come with it, council members discovered Moody’s tied its decision to a decades-old charter provision related to the disposition of the community’s annual fund balance.

Armed with the knowledge that certain conditions of the charter may be jeopardizing the town’s financial status may have strengthened the council’s resolve to initiate the application process for seating a new charter review commission.

“It’s certainly the most compelling reason I heard to initiate a charter revision,” said council chairman Will Rodgers following the meeting.

The vote to begin the application process was made with Mr Rodger’s recommendation the council extend the deadline for applications to January 31. It had already been determined that once the council voted to establish the commission, it had 30 days to seat members of that panel.

As such, Mr Rodgers said his hope was to have the necessary qualified applicants lined up before the council voted to actually establish the commission. Mr Rodgers was also reluctant to sacrifice any of the mandated time line, and did not want to rush the procedure to accommodate applicants whose availability might be compromised by the numerous upcoming holidays.

In 2001, the last charter revision initiative became quite controversial and included proposals to create a Board of Finance, to eliminate the Board of Selectmen, and give veto power to the first selectman, among the recommendations. After lengthy and expensive campaigns were waged for and against the five-point referendum, voters ended up splitting the initiatives, voting some in and turning down others.