Charter Review Board meets….doesn’t review !

     The Charter Review Board is supposed to look at the City Charter from time to time. The City Charter spells out all the rules for governing the City. How many Commissioners will there be? Will the Mayor’s position be strong or weak? Are there term limits? How long? Can the City Commission sell off the people’s land and/or parks without the people’s OK? And on and on. You can see why it’s an important board!

      When we last discussed the Charter Review Board’s scheduled meeting, we wondered if they would accomplish anything given the highly political nature of the Board, and it’s even more political make-up. And our concern played out – they didn’t even meet that time ! And that meeting was a postponement from an earlier meeting!

     So I guess we could consider yesterday’s meeting a resounding success. They met ! They picked a Chair and a Vice-Chair. And that’s about it!

     It looked dicey at first. A member was missing, and the Commission had a dictate that all their appointees needed to be present. The big-shots were there to monitor the goings-on. City Management staff came in big numbers. The City Attorney stood ready. Even Naugle, who had pushed previous Charter Boards to make his position a Strong-Mayor position, was there.

     And then it happened. Member Chris Fertig rushed in. The meeting was on.

     After a few short moments of political posturing, they picked a Chair – Attorney Greg Durden, and a Vice Chair – Attorney Chris Fertig.

     And then they basically adjourned. There was some limited talk about the two items that they perceived as their current agenda . The first was moving the City Elections to November to coincide with Presidential Elections.  Judy Stern, appointed by Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom, stated that maybe lengthening term limits might accomplish that (Yikes!), and her arch rival, member Dan Lewis , mumbled that maybe shortening the Mayor/Commissioner terms might be the better route.

     They left with the understanding that they’d get together again – sometime!