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08/09/2022 03:00 PMThe newly formed Charter Revision Commission (CRC) will hold a public hearing at Town Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m. The hearing will allow the public the opportunity to weigh in on any potential changes to the Town Charter.
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.
Last month the Council appointed Dolly Mezzetti, Jane Scully Welch, Miner Vincent, Michael Hornyak, and Jerry Dunn to sit on the CRC. The group met for the first time at the end of July and as a first order of business a public hearing is being held to get public feedback on any proposals for changes from the public.
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, however, 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.
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, which makes the public hearing useful.
After the public hearing the council will have about five months of work to come up with formalized proposed charter changes. Per the charge, the CRC has until the third week of January 2023 to hand in proposed charter changes.
A second public hearing on a draft of changes will be held once the CRC finalizes its proposed changes in early January 202. After that second hearing is when the proposed changes will be turned over to Town Council for review. Once the revisions reach Town Council, another public hearing will be held and the Council may seek additional changes. The CRC would then have 30 days to address the Council’s recommendations. If there are no recommendations, the draft becomes final.
The Town Council will be expected to vote to either approve or reject the proposed charter changes in April 2023. Assuming the proposed changes are approved, the council would have 15 months to get the 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.