With two weeks left before presenting its recommendations, the Santa Fe Charter Review Commission is seeking public input regarding its proposals.
The Commission meets every ten years to discuss possible changes to the Charter and then presents its recommendations to the Governing Body which reviews the proposals and, if needed, places proposed changes on the ballot for voters.
The Commission has been meeting since November, but really didn’t get to dig into the current charter until January, which hasn’t left a lot of time to hear from the public regarding their thoughts on what changes should be considered.
Commission Chair Nancy Long says they want to hear from the public to find out how they think the current city government is working.
“There are some important proposals that the Council sent to us. The Council sent us nine topics, dealing with governance mostly,” she said. “The committees have considered all of them and are ready to make some recommendations and we’d like to know what the public thinks about that.”
One of the biggest charter changes under consideration would be to turn the Mayor’s office into a purely executive position where he or she would no longer be voting as part of the Governing Body but would only vote to break a tie and would also have veto power on legislation.
The City Council could override a veto with a two-thirds vote. It would set Santa Fe’s government as a more traditional design with the Mayor as an executive with the Council legislative.
All of the proposed changes to the Charter are on the city website.
The Charter Commission will next meet May 3rd at 1pm in City Council Chambers to finalize what recommendations they will make with a final vote on May 8th.
The Commission will present its findings to the Governing Body on May 10th.
