There was a Special Meeting of the Legislative Council tonight to approve the appointment of a 9-member Charter Revision Commission. Now, after we unanimously approved the establishment of the Commission one would think that this vote would have sailed through, but clearly that would be too simple for Hamden ...
The meeting was a mess of confusion as a majority of Council members didn't know if the make-up of the new Commission was in conformity with state regulations. The main point of confusion centered on the rule that states no more than 1/3 of the commission can be made up of elected or appointed officials of the Town.
5 of the 9 members presented for appointment were in fact Town Commission members. Now, it appears that a couple of them were willing to resign their other commission posts to serve on the Charter Commission, but no one did by the meeting time. We tried to verify the rules with the Town Attorney, but she was trying to make sure that we were in complete compliance and couldn't give a definitive answer until she could research the matter thoroughly.
In the end, the Council tabled the item, in a 7-6 vote (I voted to table). Hopefully we can address the confusion, ensure that we are doing everything legally and appropriately and get Charter Revision back on track. Better to do things right then to push things through incomplete or out of compliance.
If anyone has any questions or comments, please e-mail me at anytime at councilmancurtleng@yahoo.com.
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