Charter Letter to Commission on behalf of the CFLCA
Honorable Mayor and Commissioners,
The topic of the Charter Revision Board report and recommendations to the commission has
been a frequent subject before the Council of Civic Associations for more than two and a half
years. During that time span two Charter Revision Boards have worked tirelessly each month to
provide carefully crafted legally reviewed recommendations for updates to the City Charter,
keeping in mind the goal of providing referendum questions for the next public election cycle.
Prior to the last election, the commission was concerned that the public did not have enough
opportunity to comment on or understand the significance of the Charter and impact of any
proposed changes sufficient to vote intelligently on ballot referendum questions and the ballot
effort was postponed. The request from the commission to the second board was to initiate a
public outreach campaign aimed at education and soliciting feedback for direction in drafting
ballot questions.
Why are you receiving this communication today? While the Council has offered a plan to
provide the resources for a public outreach program the commission has not acted on approval
to move forward with this initiative . Why is this important? Time is once again running out
before the next election in November to complete the outreach initiative, submit the public
comments to the commission, draft and provide final ballot questions to the Supervisor of
Elections no later than June 2nd for the November election.
Since this is the second time the community has experienced a delay in getting Charter revisions
before the public, there are growing numbers of very frustrated community constituents. The
response from the membership at the last General Membership Meeting was overwhelming
frustration that there will not be time for public input. It cannot be stressed enough the
communities’ lack of confidence in the commission’s progress with this process.
The Council stands ready to move forward implementing the commission requested public
outreach program once the commission has completed the draft ballot questions. The Council
strongly recommends the draft ballot questions take a priority during the March 19th session.
This would allow time for a first and second reading of approved ballot questions before the
June 2nd deadline for submission to the Supervisor of Elections.
The Council acknowledges the other key issues currently challenging the commission and
appreciates your consideration of prioritizing the Charter ballot questions.
