July 16, 2015 Matt Petryni
THIS COMING TUESDAY, THE COUNTY COUNCIL WILL CONSIDER CRITICAL CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION REFORM. PLEASE JOIN US TO MAKE SURE VOTERS HAVE THIS OPTION IN NOVEMBER.
In the past six months, the Charter Review Commission has stepped far outside its intended purpose and become a venue for partisan, coal-funded political games. In addition to district-only voting, which is designed to ensure a pro-coal control of local government against the will of the voters, the Charter Review Commission put forward a series of unconstitutional and partisan amendments that do little to improve local governance.
To address this abuse, the County Council is considering putting another amendment forward to voters that would require a Charter Review Commission supermajority for all proposed amendments. The Council is already required to achieve such a majority, which means that only proposals with broad consensus and public support are brought forward. Letting voters decide on this amendment would help ensure less and more thoughtful conversation by voters of what went wrong in this year’s Commission in the present and less partisan abuse of the Charter Review Commission in the future.
The amendment was introduced on July 7 with a public hearing to be held on July 21. Please join us to support the amendments!
For questions, contact RE Sources for Sustainable Communities Clean Energy Program at jessicad@re-sources.org.
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