AUBURN – With work on a new City Charter behind them, commissioners are ready to start promoting it to voters
Councilors voted the draft charter onto the Nov. 8 ballot Monday night, but Commission Chairman John Cleveland said he’s not finished yet. He’s meeting with members of the commission one last time next week to form a committee to promote it.
“We’re looking to provide information to forum groups, local social groups, and kind of explain what we’ve done,” Cleveland said.
On Monday, city councilors voted to pass the new charter on to the voters without comment. Mayor Normand Guay praised the Charter Commission’s hard work and City Manager Pat Finnigan called the new charter a vast improvement over the current one.
Commissioners have restructured the entire document. They’ve gotten rid of most legal jargon, modernized the language and summarized the entire document in a simple preamble.
The new charter would require a public vote before the city can borrow more than 9 percent of the budget for new buildings and land purchases, about $5.5 million this year. That’s one of the biggest changes in city rules. Councilors now have final say in all borrowing.
It also would move the city’s general election from even-numbered to odd-numbered years and require city councilors to work with the School Committee on financial audits, capital projects budgeting and adopting a purchasing policy.
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