theday.com - fix the charter
theday.com - fix the charter
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home »editorial »editorial
fix the charter
new london's city charter is outdated and troublesome and needs to be revised.
by the day
published on
11/11/2007
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the arrogance of a majority of new london's just-finished city council who knowingly violated the city charter in adopting a municipal budget should be motivation for residents to demand a new charter revision commission.
the council must start the process of overhauling this archaic and contradictory document immediately.
that was absolutely apparent last week when the council voted 4-3, with democrats in the majority, to pass a municipal budget and ignore a citizens' petition calling for a repeal or new referendum on the spending plan.
in taking the action, councilors and city officials acknowledged the city charter was violated twice: first when the city clerk failed to certify the petition submitted by the group looking out for taxpayers and the one new london party within 10 days of receiving it, and again when the city continued to operate and pay employees even after reaching the charter-imposed spending cap while the budget remained contested.
what the four democrats basically did is thumb their noses at voters, agreeing to interpret the city charter in the manner that suited them. mayor margaret m. curtin, deputy mayor kevin j. cavanagh, and councilors beth a. sabilia and jane glover voted to dismiss the citizens' petition on the eve of the city's election. the next day ms. curtin and mr. cavanagh were re-elected, while ms. sabilia and ms. glover did not seek re-election.
city law director thomas j. londregan had advised the outgoing council that there were two conflicting charter provisions. one provision gives voters the right to petition the council for repeal of the budget. another restricts city spending to 25 percent of last year's budget until the annual appropriation becomes effective. mr. londregan called the citizens' petition “invalid” because the council had already spent past the 25 percent threshold. he advised the councilors “there is no legal basis for the council to take any action on it.”
invalid? that same evening the council first voted unanimously to receive the petition as valid before then voting to dismiss it as invalid based on the law director's recommendation. also ignored was the fact the petition was filed oct. 2 — before the 25 percent spending limit was reached.
the democrats on the council used the contradictory language to avoid additional cuts to the $78.6 million budget. in the process they insulted taxpayers and voters.
despite the obvious charter flaws, some stubborn democrats continue to do all they can to block a new charter revision panel that they fear will bring up the matter of an elected mayor again. democratic party leaders don't want that. in fact, they fear it because they won't be able to so easily manipulate the system as they do now.
sixteen candidates from four political parties ran in the recent city council race, and nearly every one of them, including the seven democrats, acknowledged that the charter is flawed. among the things various candidates recommended be considered: a strong mayor elected to a four-year term, an elected board of finance, an elected zoning board, making the city clerk a non-politically appointed position, sending the budget to an automatic referendum, electing councilors by district rather than at-large, and enticing city employees to live in the city by offering tax breaks or some other incentive.
they also cited some of the archaic language in the charter that everyone just ignores — such as the erroneous description of the city's fiscal year, which does not begin in october.
new london needs to immediately establish a new charter revision commission that will undertake a serious and thoughtful look at the city's governing document. acting now will provide the commission sufficient time to ready recommendations for a vote at next november's presidential election, when turnout will be high.
democrats should not block charter revision because they oppose an elected mayor; it is the right of citizens to decide how they should be governed, not a handful of politicians.
and the fact that last march a majority of new london residents who bothered to vote supported the elected-mayor form of government is all the more reason to resolve that question once and for all. it lost only because turnout was too low to statutorily validate the special-election results.
decide the issue in a general election and if people vote it down, amen. it's over.
but equally as important is that the city get its charter in order. this is the 21st century, and it's high time new london governed itself with a modern-day document, rather than a docile dinosaur that's easily manipulated.
regional
r e a d e r's c o m m e n t s
posted - 11/12/2007 5:59:45 pm
new london's budget approval process needs revamping as evidenced by what a majority party will do to ignore the rules. it is amazing that voters didn't seem to take this into account since it happened the night before the election. perhaps voters of new london don't pay much attention to budgets, taxes, and political arrogance. when revaluation causes homeowner tax bills to skyrocket just before the next municipal election, perhaps voters will then respond to the arrogance of the current majority party. an entrenched majority party is not in the best interests of the citizens. the comments of john of new london seem on target to me.
bill generous
windsor, ct
- 11/13/2007 12:53:00 am
posted - 11/11/2007 8:05:50 am
what a surprise. the arrogance of the dem's that is. it's long been known that the only ones they are beholden to are special interests certainly not the taxpayers. that's spelled union. especially this year the teacher's union. it's ludicrious. but the dem's know they can get away with it. they know that having an uneducated electorate works for them. i would say that not more than 5% of new london's electorate would know a city issue if it ran over them on the street. they vote the old party line because their parents did or because they think they're helping them. so knowing that the dem's vote with their special interests. like i always say if you can't understand a vote just "follow the money". now we have a larger dem majority. while many of these people are nice one on one something happens when they assemble for their bi-weekly meetings (just before council meetings) to decide how the vote will go. in this case at least they may be brought to task by a lawsuit being filed. i left the dem's years ago when it became apparent that "we the people" were the last one's they cared about. so until the disgruntled voters come together nothing will change. green's need to work with, 1nl and rep's to save this city. dem's love the vote split it plays in their favor. if g, 1nl and gop had put forward one slate and it was on all three lines we would have a much different city today. until then the arrogance will continue.
john
new london, ct
- 11/11/2007 8:40:25 am
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theday.com - fix the charter
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