When I was appointed to the Charter Review Commission, I promised that I would periodically give you updates as to what is going on. While it's now been over 5 months since our first meeting, we're still in the process of gathering information and developing ideas. That is about to change.
As a recap, the Charter Review Commission is charged with reviewing the city's charter and coming up with an amended charter (if needed) to present to the voters at a future election. Whatever comes out of the commission
will be placed on a future ballot and the voters will decide if they want whatever comes out of the commission. The commission has 1 year to come up with such a document. (April 2010)
The 15 member commission has been meeting both as a group and in smaller subcommittees to formulate such a document. Each subcommittee is responsible for doing the research and coming up with plans that will be put forward to the entire commission for possible inclusion in the final document.
The first subcommittee recommendation was made at last month's meeting. This one dealt with proposed changes to Article XVII, which created the charter review commission. Because of the drama that surrounded the formation of the current commission, it was felt that certain things, like the number of commissioners and how they are chosen, should be codified within the charter itself. No action was taken on this item, whether to approve or not, and it was held over to the next meeting, which is Wednesday.
All sections of the charter were assigned to subcommittees, with the exception of Article IV, which deals with elective offices, the city council, how vacancies are handled, districts, and compensation and expenses. You can read the charter
HERE (pdf file). Because this is such an important issue, it was decided that the entire commission would take it up as a group instead of going to subcommittees. This Wednesday's meeting is when that will occur. It is anticipated that we will be getting a lot of public input, especially from those who are pushing for a new plan for district elections. To accommodate anticipated public input, the meeting will be held at the Ganesha Park Community Center at 7:00 pm.
If you have input on how you feel districts elections should be held, or if you don't want districts at all, or if you feel that we should have more or fewer council seats or anything else regarding Article IV, please be sure to attend the meeting and let us know. We value your input.
Charter Review Commission
Wednesday, October 20
7:00 pm
Ganesha Park Community Center
1575 North White Avenue, Pomona
Some of the issues that are currently being discussed in the subcommittees include the formation of an Ethics Commission, a Police Commission, and a wide variety of minor and major adjustments to the current Charter. The Commission meets the 4th Wednesday of each month, usually in the Council Chambers annex (to the south of the council chambers where the council usually holds their closed session meetings). Because of theIt's a Brown Act Commission so the public is always welcome.
