Northampton Community Television is hosting a public forum about the upcoming charter vote, Wednesday Oct. 24 at 7 PM in the JFK Middle School Community Room. Below is the announcement sent to local media.
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PUBLIC FORUM TO ASK VOTERS: SHOULD NORTHAMPTON
APPROVE A NEW CITY CHARTER?
Northampton Community Television to host Wed. 10/24 forum
in advance of Tues. 11/6 special municipal election
Before Northampton voters decide on Election Day whether to approve a modernized city charter, Northampton Community Television will hold a public forum Wednesday October 24 to give voters a chance to educate themselves, ask questions and make their voices heard.
The forum will take place at the JFK Middle School Community Room from 7 pm to 8 pm. Northampton High School history teacher Scott Mahar will moderate. Members from the City Council and the former Special Act Charter Drafting Committee are expected to attend and answer any questions from the public.
“This is akin to asking the voters to approve a new constitution,” said NCTV Executive Director Al Williams. “It’s a pivotal moment for Northampton democracy and NCTV is proud to give the voters a chance to weigh in.”
Videos explaining some of the key changes in the charter are available at http://www.northamptontv.org. Charter drafting committee members have also created a website http://charteryes.blogspot.com with short explanations of the changes and links to more detailed information.
The proposed charter revision has already been approved by the City Council, state legislature and the Governor. But it only will be ratified if approved by Northampton voters on Election Day. The Council and the state took action after three months of public deliberations by the Special Act Charter Drafting Committee, including two televised public forums, one roundtable discussion with former and current elected officials and several written recommendations from the public.
The primary goal of overhauling the city’s 129-year old charter is to replace the archaic language that many find difficult to interpret and streamline patchwork amendments that make the overall document hard to follow.
Notable changes in the new charter include establishing a four-year term for mayor, transferring chairmanship of City Council meetings from the mayor to the Council president, creating a special election to fill mayoral vacancies and simplifying School Committee elections by making all terms run concurrently and run for two years. The charter proposal also would mandate breaking out compensation for elected officials as a separate budget line-item to improve transparency, and establishing an independent commission to make recommendations on appropriate levels of compensation.
