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Elgin’s City Charter has remained largely untouched since its inception several decades ago, but council members are considering enlisting local voters for a complete review.
Discussions earlier this month about a potential City Council term length and compensation increase led to a larger conversation about Elgin’s constitution during the July 16 council meeting. Following the lead of neighboring municipalities, City Manager Tom Mattis suggested incorporating a charter review process to be completed every five years.
“This item, I think turns into a much larger discussion, as far as a review of the city charter,” said Mattis. “Elgin’s in a very unique spot as it relates to the charter review process, and this is a very big task ahead of the city, but something that does need to be done. It’s a very important document that the City Council is compelled to follow, and it only can be amended or changed by the voters.”
According to the National Civic League, a charter establishes the basic framework that can be individualized to every city depending on state law.
Most city charters have a directed process stated within the document itself mandating a recurring review to consider potential amendments. No such provision is found in Elgin’s initially adopted charter, and state law does not require such a review, according to Mattis.
While it’s unclear if the city has ever engaged in the more formal and complete charter review process, it has been altered throughout the years through individual amendments.
“This isn’t a situation where the city has failed to follow the law or follow its charter, we just haven’t been required to do it,” Mattis added. “We’re not bound by state law, it’s not in the charter – so at this point in our history, council basically is in a position to handle this however we want.”
The proposed process would see a commission appointed every five years to review the charter in its entirety, consisting of nine qualified voters empowered by the council with direct access to city voters. Council members would pick an individual to represent them, but the commission must be formally appointed by the council as a whole, according to the city manager’s report.
The council can decide to make requirements for appointees if they agree to do so.
“This is a very important part of this process because being a member of the charter review commission goes beyond what normal boards and commission appointments amount to,” Mattis said. “The individuals we appoint here are very important, it’s a commitment that will take many months to complete, there’ll be multiple meetings, so it’s important that the people we appoint to this commission are committed to the task.”
The commission would provide a comprehensive detailed review of every section of the charter, according to the report, considering wording of every section. City Council can add any other charter amendments they want to propose, but the idea is that the council won’t delete what the commission comes up with.
City Council doesn’t give them direction, “they just go where the conversation goes,” but the council can let them know what sections they are interested in paying attention to, according to Mattis.
“This is the constitution, the law, so specific wording of one or two sentences can make all the difference in the world,” Mattis added. “It’s a lengthy process that takes a lot of detail, a lot of back and forth, a lot of conversation to get through.”
When the commission finishes their work, they will make a recommendation to the council on sections and wordings they think should be changed. City Council is then compelled to put those issues forward to the voters.
However, the council stated they expect that the load on the first commission would be a lot to manage – they “can’t rule out the possibility that there will be a lot of discussion about a lot of different sections of the charter,” and it may take a longer period of time.
“Understanding our individual situation, this has never been done before,” said the city manager. “If you monitor most cities, when they do charter reviews, if you do them every five years, then what charter amendments come forward are usually tweaks to small items. It’s a weird situation cities don’t normally find themselves in.”
Elgin would ostensibly have to make up for five or six missed reviews, according to the council. However, city staff will support the commission and the city attorney will be guiding them on the language.
The process on the 40-page-long charter can begin as soon as City Council is ready to appoint representatives. They plan on discussing the topic further during the next council meeting Aug. 6, but stated it “would be good to have the city secretary position filled beforehand.”
“This charter served this city ok for almost 40 years,” Mattis said.
It’s possible to still put an independent term length amendment before voters for the upcoming November election, Mattis added. Council members stated they would like to see an increase to three or four years to better situate the board.
