The new iteration of the Charter Revision Commission (CRC) held a public hearing on March 14 at the Town Hall where community members voiced their opinions about potential changes to the document.

The new commission was formed in January and is comprised of three Democrats, Art Kuever, Lise Gazzillo, and Mary Jo Phelps; three Republicans, Mike Knudsen, Mike Hornyak, and Dennis Donovan; and one Green Party member, Eric Bergman. Bergman, Kuever, and Donovan were members of the previous commission, which was formed in March 2016 and disbanded in summer 2017.

At the public hearing, it was a small turnout with only three members of the public in attendance-a fact that ruffled some feathers on the commission.

“I wish there were more people,” said Donovan. “This discourages me, the lack of interest. They missed out on an opportunity...I hope there’s more people next time.”

Board of Finance Chair John Olsen told the board he felt “our government structure is archaic,” and spoke of how little the charter has changed over the course of many years. Olsen said he was in favor of changing the style of government, and suggested the CRC consider a representative town meeting style of government.

“I know it’s a radical change, but everything is radical,” he said.

Former First Selectman Bruce Farmer said he would like to “contribute my thoughts” in the future, and also said he wished more people had paid attention to the previous proposed charter.

“I wish people had done their homework to take the time to vote” he said.

Barbara Farmer said that she had served on the previous commission and echoed Olsen’s sentiments that the charter had not seen significant changes in a long time.

“Most of what we did was changing prepositions,” Farmer said.

Donovan said that the current CRC would be taking a “clean slate” when it comes to proposed charter changes.

“We are starting with town charter as it is today,” he said. “I want to put this in the Board of Selectmen’s hands by June,” he said.

The History of the Charter Revision

The 2017 charter revision proposal called for, among other recommendations, a change to a town manager style of government, which would employ a professional chief executive officer to be overseen by the elected Board of Selectmen (BOS). The previous BOS voted not to send the proposed charter change to the ballot, citing concerns about the lack of oversight of the new town manager.

In response, the Clinton Charter Reform Coalition was formed and over the summer undertook a successful petition drive that forced the town to have a referendum on the proposed changes. However, due to an oversight in which the proposed charter didn’t name a date by which it would go into effect, if the town voted for the creation of a town manager position, the town would need to make that switch within 30 days of the vote. That condition led to the coalition encouraging voters to vote “No” on three charter-related changes in the November election.