This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/18/2018 12:30 PMWith two new proposed charters on the ballot this November, several interested citizens have re-formed the Clinton Charter Reform Coalition (CCRC) to educate residents on the proposed charter changes, through a series of informational meetings.
The CCRC—not to be confused with the town’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC), which formulated the two proposed charter changes—is a bipartisan group of 12 members led by Ellen Dahlgren (D) and John Allen (R). The group will hold three informational meetings in the Town Hall Green Room: the dates are Thursday Oct. 4 at 7 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m.; and Thursday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.
The Oct. 25 meeting will feature Matthew Hart, the town manager of West Hartford. Courtney Hendricson, the vice president of municipal services for the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, will also be present at the meetings on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1.
All the meetings will include discussions about both proposed charters and outline their differences. The CCRC has invited some members of the CRC to explain the changes and to field questions from the audience.
Allen anticipates that most the time will be spent on the proposed charter that features a change to a town manager form of government, because that is the biggest and most significant change being proposed.
Allen said that the meetings are open to everyone, no matter what their views are about the proposed changes.
“The point is not telling people that they’re wrong,” Allen said.
“We have to try to get people concerned. Hopefully people will say this is important enough, we should learn about it,” Allen said.
Earlier in 2018, the CRC formally turned in two proposed charters to the Board of Selectmen. The board approved two questions concerning charter change that will be on the November ballot. The two questions that will appear on the ballot are:
1. Shall the Town of Clinton amend the Charter to adopt a Town Council and Town Manager form of government and associated amendments pursuant to the final report of the Charter Revision Commission dated Aug. 28, 2018, to be effective Nov. 19, 2019?
and
2. Shall the Town of Clinton retain the Board of Selectmen form of government and make the various amendments pursuant to the amended Charter for such form of government contained in the final report of the Charter Revision Commission dated Aug. 28, 2018, to be effective Nov. 19, 2019?
Under a town manager form of government, a professional, accredited town manager answerable to a seven-member town council would act as the town’s chief executive, taking on many of the duties handled by the current first selectman. The elected town council would hire or fire the town manager. The CRC estimated that the town manager salary would start at around $126,000.
Under the town manager form of government, the BOF would be eliminated. Instead, the town manager would work with the finance director and department heads to propose a budget. The proposed budget would be presented to the town council, which would need to approve the proposed budget before sending it to referendum.
The second proposed charter would retain the current form of town government, but includes significant changes, such as prohibiting someone from serving on two elected positions concurrently, increasing the Board of Finance (BOF) from six to seven members, and requiring that special appropriations of $300,000 or more, excluding emergency situations, be sent to referendum.
Any changes approved by the voters would go into effect in November of 2019.
For more on the proposed charters, visit www.zip06.com. For more information on CCRC, visit www.clintoncharterreform.org or find it on Facebook.