HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - City Council - 01/26/2009 wRP
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south urlin ton
Charles E. Hafter, City Manager
AGENDA
SOUTH BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL
CITY HALL CONFERENCE ROOM
575 Donee-St-
SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Special Session 7:00pm Monday, Jan. 26 , 2009
1) Conduct Second Public Hearing on Comprehensive City Charter Amendments.
Respectfully Submitted:
Charles Hafter, i Manager
575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 tel 802.846.4107 fax 802.846.4101 www.sburl.com
City of South Burlington
Final Report to the City Council on the
Comprehensive Review of the City Charter
From the City Charter Review Committee
Presented June 2, 2008
Final Report
To: The South Burlington City Council
From: The City Charter Review Committee:
John Simson, Chair
Bernie Smyle
Bill Cimonetti
Dale Kleppinger
Dan Wetzel
Meaghan Emery
Jennifer Jenkins
Mike Flaherty
Peter Taylor
Terry Sheahan
Date: May 20, 2008
The South Burlington City Charter Comprehensive Review Committee was
appointed in May 2007 by the City Council to review the existing City Charter.
The Charter was adopted in 1971 and has remained essentially the same except
for the two recent votes approving changes to the Charter having to do with how
City and School District budgets are decided upon. The Committee's charge
was to conduct a comprehensive review of the Charter and to "study if the
municipal organizational structure and scope of governmental authority contained
in the Charter are still the preferred way to operate City and School systems."
The Committee held 10 publicly noticed meetings where the entire charter was
reviewed and discussed in detail. Over the course of those meetings we
followed a systematic approach. First, the committee met with two of the
Charter's original drafters, Fred Blais and Fred Maher, who provided some
insight in the creation of the Charter. In addition, because the charter had not
been updated in its entirety since it was adopted in 1971, we made a thorough
line-by line review. The review resulted in edits and updates such as making
wording gender neutral, reflecting changes to State statutes that are referenced
in the Charter and correcting punctuation and capitalization errors. Next we
identified a list of issues committee members wished to discuss. Those were
driven primarily by a consensus of the committee that City government and
residents would benefit from measures to encourage greater citizen participation.
The committee met twice with the School Board. The committee discussed at
length structural changes to the Charter such as instituting election of city council
and school board members by wards, or changing the form of government to
include a mayor. The focus of discussion was whether structural changes would
produce enough positive benefit in public interest and participation to justify
abandoning the current system that was seen as efficient and effective in the
delivery of government services to South Burlington residents. The final
consensus of the committee was to recommend leaving the Charter unchanged
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with regard to the Council-Manager form of government and the at-large election
of the City Council and School Board.
However, the committee remained committed to using the Charter to encourage
greater involvement by residents in City policy and governance matters. To that
end we have included proposed language in the section of the Charter dealing
with the powers and duties of the City Council to enable the formation of
neighborhood forums. These would be initiated by the Council or School Board
or by residents and would address "matters of public interest or concern". By
including in the Charter a process for neighborhood forum formation and
operation, the committee wished to empower residents having a community of
interest to interact with City government in an equitable, cooperative and
constructive way.
Finally, we made additions and changes that the committee recommends would
improve City government or school operations such as establishing a reserve
fund, lengthening the warning period for ordinance hearings and removing
obsolete language such as the appointment of the City Clerk and the section
dealing with the water department and Water Commissioners.
In anticipation of the two public forums to be held on April 2nd and April 16th, the
committee provided two informative articles to the South Burlington Other Paper
which were published in full. Notice of the forums was published in the Other
Paper and Burlington Free Press. Both forums were videotaped (for broadcast at
a later date) by Channel 17. The turnout of citizens for both forums was
disappointing but good discussions occurred.
What follows is a brief mention of all changes of significance to the Charter
recommended by the committee and finally an "addendum" of items viewed by
the committee as not appropriate for insertion in the Charter but worthy of
inclusion in the report and consideration by the City Council.
Reference should be made to the Charter Review Committee version of the
Charter dated April 23, 2008.
Section 13-103 (a). Powers of the City
We deleted the enumeration of specific penalties for violation of city ordinances.
State statutes permit levying of reasonable fines and jail time and the $100 limit
on fines in the Charter was outdated. We simply referenced State law.
Section 13-107. Further consideration; final passage
We changed the warning time for final hearing of an ordinance from 3 days to
one week. The initial hearing warning time is one week. The Council may make
amendments before the final hearing. In our opinion, amendments may be of
significance and thus warrant public warning consistent with the initial warning.
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13-110. Annual City Report
We changed the due date for the Annual City Report from 105 days after the end
of the fiscal year to the "earliest time following the fiscal year but no later than
March 1". The timing of availability of information to be included in the City
Report would enable a better product under the new deadline.
13-301. Officers; general provisions
We deleted the position of fire warden from the list of town offices abolished by
the Charter. This action was taken on the advice of council for consistency with
State statutes.
13-301 (a)
We enabled School Directors to serve on the Board of Civil Authority and Board
of Abatement but retained the Charter restriction on holding any other office.
13-302 City Council; number; terms of office; election
We deleted the unofficial provision requiring that the City Clerk shall be
appointed by the City Council.
13-305 Meetings
We added section (e) to encourage the City Council to meet periodically in the
City's elementary schools.
13-307 (4) (b) Appointments
Regarding the advertisement of vacant positions, we deleted the reference to
"daily" newspapers and added "or other electronic means" to enable the use of
the city website for that purpose. This change is reflected elsewhere in the
Charter wherever notice of meetings is specified.
13-310 Powers and Duties
We added section (7) to enable the City Council and School board to establish
reserve funds to pay for public improvements, replacement of equipment and
planned or unplanned operating expenditures.
We added section (8) (a) and (8) (b) to enable the creation of neighborhood
forums and to spell out their operation and purpose.
13-502 Time of Holding
We deleted the specific date of the annual City meeting (first Tuesday in May)
and substituted "on a date established and legally warned by the Council". The
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intent of the committee is to allow the Council flexibility. The committee heard
from the public and members expressed opinions that holding the City meeting
on Vermont's town meeting day would improve voter turnout. With no consensus
for that specific change, the committee decided to allow the City Council to
designate the date.
13-1102 Powers and duties (of the Steering Committee)
(d) We inserted The Steering Committee itself as the source of approval of
Steering Committee expenses rather than requiring separate approval by the City
Council and School Board.
13-1304 Amount to be raised by taxation
We inserted the new language approved by the Legislature in 2008.
13-1309 Net Cost of Operations
(b)(7) We added the Regional Planning Commission and Metropolitan Planning
Organization as deductions from the gross budget for the purpose of calculating
the net cost of operations.
13-1506 Sales, rooms, meals and alcoholic beverages tax
We included sections (a) through (d) to reflect the language already approved by
the Legislature but not included in the Charter document.
13-1703 Ethical guidelines
We changed the name of this section from "Prohibitions" to "Ethical guidelines"
and added a requirement that the City Council prepare a guideline document to
define acceptable business conduct and ethics for City officials and employees.
13-1903 Reappraisal of taxable property
(a) We deleted the minimum amount of$1000 to trigger a permit and substituted
"as determined by definition in the City's Land Development Regulations".
13-1904 Appraisal of unimproved land approved for commercial or
industrial development
We inserted language exempting property where a development permit has
expired or is under appeal to the Environmental Court from reappraisal at a
higher value reflecting the development potential of the property.
13-2001 through 13-2005
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We recommended repeal of those sections of the Charter dealing with the Water
Commission. The Water Department is now an operating department of City
government no different from police, fire, recreation and public works, etc.
ADDENDUM
In the course of the Charter Review Committee's 10 meetings and two public
forums many subjects were raised and discussed. As was mentioned in the
report, public participation in the City's governance was a recurring theme. We
have taken steps to address specific suggestions whenever the Charter seemed
to be the appropriate place to do so. However, we recognize it is undemocratic
and impractical to legislate or mandate the public's involvement.
Achieving greater "transparency" in how our City government's business is
transacted was an objective of the committee in its discussions. Our
recommendations are: more publicity of city issues and meetings, use of the
City's website by City departments, publication of decisions by City commissions
and committees especially to citizens attending hearings and a policy to instill a
culture of accessibility and diplomacy in City officials, both employed and
volunteer.
One committee member, following a suggestion made by citizens at one of the
public forums, called for the appointment of a citizen task force to examine why
the public chooses to participate or not participate in South Burlington's
governmental decision making, and to understand what might be done to
increase participation. There was also sentiment on the committee to explore
public attitudes toward city government and participation via a formal study
conducted by a professional polling firm. Although these specific
recommendations were deemed to be beyond our charge, we include them in
this addendum for consideration by the Council.
We did include in the recommended Charter revisions enabling language for the
formation of neighborhood forums and holding periodic City Council meetings in
elementary schools around the City. We also recommended requiring the use of
electronic media to warn meetings and advertise vacant City employee and
volunteer positions.
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