The Hartford City Council approved a city charter revision commission last month, and on the evening of November 6 last week, the commission held its first public organizational meeting in City Council chambers to become acquainted, take an oath of office, elect officers, and get a sense of its meeting schedule.

In an October 14 City Council resolution, the names and addresses of the members were listed, along with certain legal details. The commission is required to consist of between five and 15 city residents, not more than a third of whom can hold any other city public office, and not more than a “bare majority” of whom represent any single political party.

As it turns out, the commission includes 13 members: one Working Families Party, two unaffiliated, three Republicans, and seven Democrats.

The resolution listed the 13 individuals but introduced them as numbering only eleven, perhaps because two were said to be last-minute additions. The process for finalizing the list was in the hands of the Democratic majority of city council membership (six of nine total).

The commission members, grouped by ZIP code of residence:

06103
Matt Fleury (D)
Rich Wareing (R) - Chairperson

06105
Alex Aponte (D)
Marcia Bok Anderson (D)
Heather Brandon (U)
Yvonne Duncan (U)
Mathew Jasinski (R)
Monique Rowtham-Kennedy (D) - Vice chairperson

06106
Sara Bronin (D) - Secretary
Julian Pelaez (R)

06112
Jeff Stewart (D)

06114
Ed Vargas (D)

06120
Marquita McElya (WF)

Commission membership appears to include representatives of all of the city’s ZIP codes, if not all of the city’s neighborhoods, with plenty of representation from 06105, including me.

At the meeting last week, the commissioners had a chance to meet and hear from New Haven-based attorney Steven Mednick (pictured), at the request of City Clerk Dan Carey. Mednick served as counsel to the last charter revision commission in 2002. As he told the commission, he also served as special counsel for drafting a recent civil service ordinance, as well as for a proposed procurement system.

The City Council authorized $35,000 for the commission to spend “on staff, materials incidental to maintaining a record of the deliberations and decisions of the commission including but not limited to office materials and copying costs and any costs associated with holding public meetings of or regarding the commission’s meetings, which in the opinion of a majority of the members of the Charter Revision Commission is necessary to assist in its work.”

Carey suggested that not only would legal counsel need to be considered, but so would possible clerical assistance. The commission decided to elect a secretary for the time being, and to assign the three officers the follow-up work of outlining a budget. They will also talk with Mednick as well as the previous charter revision commission chairperson, Allan Taylor, looking into administrative and legal support options and cost, among other possible related needs.

Commissioners were sensitive to the idea of saving as much money as possible, but were also aware that the secretarial work associated with a charter revision can be significant. Commissioners who were also involved in the last charter revision noted the budget that year for legal and other support amounted to about $50,000. Could this year’s commission accomplish similar work with less? Generally commissioners seemed to think so, especially given the likely smaller scope of this revision.

Carey mentioned that Linda Bayer, who served as a hired secretarial clerk for the last charter revision, would be willing to consider doing it again. Bayer has worked many years for the city, including as assistant city manager, and is currently interim director of Hartford Public Access Television as well as a member of the MDC’s citizen advisory committee for its wide-ranging Clean Water Project.

Throughout the proceedings Thursday night, City Councilperson Larry Deutsch sat in the audience area, paid close attention, and took careful notes, earlier having introduced himself to each commissioner he didn’t already know. No other elected officials paid a visit, to my knowledge.

The commission will meet again next week, 6:00 pm on Tuesday, November 18 in City Hall.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 2:10 pm and is filed under City Council, Downtown, Events, Hartford, Meeting records, Public spaces, Think tanks, Urban Compass.