When Wyoming residents head to the polls on November 2nd, in addition to City Council and School Board candidates, they will find proposed amendments to the City Charter. The vote concludes a months-long review process that takes place every five years, conducted by City Council members and citizens appointed by Council.
“It’s a citizen’s review, as called for by the Charter,” says Commission member Jon B. Boss. “It’s nothing more than taking a fresh look every five years.”
The amendments include allowing meetings to be conducted virtually if necessary, making language in some sections gender neutral and consistent with the rest of the Charter, and clarifying that a decision to remove a City Manager cannot be appealed by any party. A summary of the amendments can be found on Wyoming’s website; full text of the amendments is available at the City office building and will be published in Tri-County Press twice before Election Day, on October 6th and 13th. In addition, notifications will be sent through the City’s email list and the News and Information eblast to anyone who is subscribed.
The Charter Review Commission consisted of City Council members Al Delgado (who served as the Commission’s chair), Sarah Stankorb Taylor, Jim O’Reilly, and Zach Green; City Solicitor Emily Supinger; then-acting City Manager Rusty Herzog; and appointed residents Jon B. Boss, Jen Eismeier, Deb Allsop, and Mary Killen. The Commission met four times beginning in February of 2021 to comb through the City Charter section by section and discuss potential changes. At the May 17th meeting they presented their recommendations to the full City Council, which voted unanimously to include the amendments on the ballot.
Jon Boss stresses that the changes are largely editorial and encourages residents to read the Charter for themselves. It is a 14-page document that can be found on the City of Wyoming site as well. Reading it, he says, is not particularly time-consuming: “It isn’t like something coming out of Columbus or DC, you know?”
