EP City Council to Begin Charter Review Process - Mayor Briden

Meeting, Monday February 13th 5:30 PM City Hall

Based on the overwhelming support of voters approving some charter changes at recent elections, Mayor Jim Briden has announced that the city will finally establish a charter review commission. "At Tuesday's meeting (2/7/17), the Council voted to establish a Charter Review Commission. On Monday, February 13th at 5:30pm, we will hold a Special Meeting at which time 11 appointments will be made," said Briden.

An initial objective will be to propose amendments to our Charter to conform to the new Article III which replaced our City Manager model with an elected Mayoral form of government.

"The contemplated schedule will be to have weekly meetings starting this month and ending in the early Spring. A subsequent phase can occur which will focus on ordinances which can be amended without voter approval," the Mayor added.

"Many have expressed an interest in serving and in so doing have demonstrated a most sincere level of civic mindedness and genuine concern for our future. This experience will also allow us to take an inventory of where we are as a City and to propose amendments that will promote our core objectives for the next decade," added Briden.

What may remain to be seen is just how automatic the vote to change the form of government will be. There are procedural steps which have been used to block voter mandates in the past. Close to 75% of voters approved the change to an elected Mayor. Currently the City Manager is the administrator leader of government but that system has been very controversial with several managerial firings in a six year period of time.

The City describes its governance as "a Council-Manager form of government. The Council-Manager form of government combines the strong political leadership of elected officials in the form of a Council or other governing body with the strong managerial experience of an appointed local government manager. Approximately 59% of US cities with populations of 25,000 or more, and 47% of US cities with populations of 5,000 or more, have adopted the Council-Manager form of government."