City Council President Brendan Rielly has a couple of ideas about how to improve government in Westbrook – remove the mayor’s control of City Council meeting agendas and power to veto City Council decisions.
“I would like to remove the veto,” he said. “I don’t like it.”
The suggestions from Rielly came Monday night at a Committee of the Whole meeting, as councilors discussed the possibility of forming a charter commission that would try to decide how the city’s government could be improved. The committee recommended 6-0 that the city hold a referendum in November on whether to form such a commission.
Mayor Bruce Chuluda is opposed to forming a commission, and, although Rielly has some ideas about changes that could be made, he too said he’s not completely sold on whether forming the commission is a good idea.
“The goal shouldn’t just be different government. The goal should be better government,” he said.
According to the Maine Municipal Association, Westbrook is one of only four cities in the state to have a strong mayor form of government, where the mayor is elected by the citizens and has broad powers of appointment, administration and legislation.
“What we have now works,” Mayor Bruce Chuluda said Tuesday.
Chuluda said he hasn’t heard any indication that changes to the city government structure would be better for the community, and he thinks “a change for the sake of change” would not be a constructive use of the citizens’ time.
By state statute, a charter commission comprises six elected members and three members who are appointed by the City Council. The commission convenes for a year to thoroughly review the existing charter and makes suggestions about changes. Finally, the voters decide whether the suggested changes should be implemented.
Though councilors presented potential items for review in the charter, once the commission is formed, the council has no say in what changes will be put out to voters.
Regardless of what the council would like to see changed, Councilor Ed Symbol said, “It’s just time for us to revisit the charter.” Councilor John O’Hara agreed it was “worth pursuing.”
Symbol said he supports the charter commission because he would like to see more power in the hands of the voters.
“I would like to know what people are afraid of, why seven people sit up there and think they know better than 16,000,” he said.
Symbol did not have any specific suggestions, but said he’d like to see “the whole charter” reviewed.
Councilor Mike Foley suggested considering changing the length of councilors’ terms and staggering them, so that a whole new council can’t be elected at once, leaving it with no institutional knowledge.
Rielly said some things about the way Westbrook’s government operates are strange. “It’s weird to have the mayor, who’s not a member of the council, call council meetings,” Rielly said Tuesday.
Rielly and Councilor Drew Gattine both raised the issue of limiting the mayor’s spending ability, restricting the mayor from being able to spend more than $3,000 without council approval. City Solicitor Bill Dale said he believed the matter could be settled in an ordinance change, which Bryant said would be coming to the council for consideration soon.
The Committee of the Whole voted 6-0 Monday to recommend the City Council consider holding a referendum in November about whether to form a charter commission.
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