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11/14/2022 02:20 PMWith Clinton’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) moving faster than anticipated, the Commission will likely hold a public hearing on proposed charter changes early next month.
The Town Charter is a document that outlines the roles and bylaws for the different boards, commissions, and town departments in Clinton. Earlier this year, the Town Council began discussing the need to update sections of the charter, and the Council ultimately agreed to appoint a new CRC to consider changes.
Initially, the CRC was planning on working on proposed charter changes through the end of 2022 and holding a public hearing sometime in January. However, at a Town Council meeting on Nov. 2, Town Manager Karl Kilduff told the council the CRC has been able to work faster than anticipated and is now tentatively eyeing Dec. 7 at 6:00 p.m. as the date for the public hearing.
“The State Statute that describes the charter revision process requires a public hearing before the Commission begins the substance of its work and then another public hearing on their draft document to amend the Charter. The Commission has yet to finalize the report and is waiting for final review by the Town Attorney,” Kilduff told the Harbor News after the meeting.
“When completed, the draft report from the Commission will be available in the Town Clerk’s Office as a hard copy and online in advance of the hearing on Dec. 7,” Kilduff said.
Earlier this year the Town Council formally charged the CRC with considering nine proposed changes. Some are minor fixes such as removing references to the Board of Selectmen. Other changes, though, are more significant. Among those proposed changes, the Council is asking for is the ability to hire a town manager for a term of longer than three years. Other major proposed changes include increasing the amount of money the town can appropriate without a referendum and the cancellation of the required annual town meeting.
By statute, the CRC must weigh in on the specific proposed changes from the Council. However, the CRC can also propose additional changes that members of the commission or members of the public suggest. Before the CRC got to work a public hearing was held in August where the public was able to suggest more proposed changes for the council to consider.
Since the changes proposed by the council and the ones suggested by the public were — relatively speaking — minor changes, Kilduff said the CRC was able to get ahead of its original proposed timeline.
“The hearing is approximately one month ahead of the schedule which was prepared for the Town Council to track the steps that need to be taken in amending the charter. The charge given to the Commission by the Town Council was focused on small adjustments – not a major change as was the case previously. Public comment also focused on small changes in language – some of which overlapped areas identified by the Town Council,” said Kilduff.
After that second hearing, proposed changes will be turned over to Town Council for review next month. Once the revisions reach Town Council, the Council may seek additional changes, and an additional public hearing over the proposed charter changes will be held, this time by the Town Council, sometime in early 2023. The CRC would then have 30 days to address the Council’s recommendations. If there are no recommendations, the draft becomes a final proposal.
The Town Council will be expected to vote to either approve or reject the proposed charter changes after the second public hearing is held.
Assuming the proposed changes are approved by the council, the public will be responsible for either approving or denying the proposed changes from going into effect.
If the proposed changes are approved the council would have 15 months to get public input on the proposed changes. However, it is most likely that any proposed changes to the charter will be on the ballot as part of the 2023 municipal elections.
The Charter requires the town to appoint a CRC to review the document no less than every five years, but, given the large change in government structure that the town underwent, it was suggested by other towns’ town managers that Clinton appoint a new CRC about sooner than that to work out any issues that council members may have noticed.
The last time the town appointed a CRC was in 2018 when a major charter revision was proposed that changed the form of government from the board of selectman model to the current town manager-town council model. Citizens approved the proposed change in November 2018, and the new government went into effect in November 2019.