Wellington’s Charter Review Task Force conducted its first meeting on Wednesday and began to lay out a plan of attack for reviewing and recommending changes to the village’s charter.
Task force members agreed to meet once a month, narrowing down the issues and requesting feedback from the public on recommended changes.
“My understanding is [the council is] looking for you to go piece by piece through the entire charter and determine if things need to be updated,” Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said. “I’m not aware of any particular item they’d want looked at, except for issues surrounding certification of election results.”
Members of the Wellington Village Council created the task force last month, hoping to address any issues in the charter and put any changes on the March 2016 ballot.
One such issue is that of certifying elections, which was a central point of debate in the contested 2012 election. Council members hoped to clear up confusion about the certification process.
The task force has an initial run of six months in which it will examine and make recommendations to the council.
“If, at the end of six months, you think you need more time, I don’t see the council having a problem granting an extension,” Cohen said. “You’re going to make a presentation to the council with your recommendations and any proposed revisions. The council will discuss it, debate it and adopt an ordinance to put it out to a vote of the electorate.”
Task force members include former County Commissioner Ken Adams, who was elected chairman, former Village Attorney Jeff Kurtz, former Assistant Village Manager Francine Ramaglia, equestrian activist Victoria McCullough and Education Committee Vice Chair Michelle McGovern.
Cohen noted that the task force could meet as often as members think it needs to. “You’re not limited to meeting once a month,” she said. “You could meet whenever it’s convenient for all of you.”
Kurtz suggested that the task force meet not on the council dais but in its conference room. “I’ve always felt that there were more productive meetings with the board members when they were in the conference room and could look at each other,” he said.
McGovern noted that she sat on three charter review committees for the City of West Palm Beach and suggested going through the charter in sections.
“We decided to take on so many sections per meeting,” she said. “There are 14 sections of the charter, so say we do seven meetings with two sections. Then the public would know which sections we’re going to address at each meeting.”
Ramaglia said she liked the idea, but also liked the idea of town hall-style meetings.
“Maybe halfway through we could do a town hall, and maybe at the end we do a town hall,” she said. “I think we should invite comments on our minutes through one of the software programs to let residents have discussions. This would be a great way to get people who can’t come to meetings involved.”
Kurtz said that many of the charter sections are simple and straightforward.
“I’d like to cover more than four sections in a meeting,” he said. “I would think we could get through this charter within two meetings with at least our initial comments on things.”
He said if the topics of discussion are left wide open, people will be less likely to participate. But if the task force can narrow down issues it might recommend changing, the public would be able to give more concrete input.
“I think we’d get better participation and potentially less backlash if we’ve had a moment to consider it amongst ourselves first,” Kurtz said.
Ramaglia said she believed a combination would be best, tackling the charter in its entirety and then breaking it into sections.
“I think proposing specific questions to the public might be a good idea,” she said. “We wouldn’t limit the discussion to those topics, but we could frame the conversation in a way that might encourage people to come.”
Kurtz also suggested that the task force meet once a month, and McGovern agreed.
Adams said he was pleased that the task force was so concerned about involving the public. He noted that Wellington’s charter was crafted with a lot of public input.
“This charter that we’re looking to amend was a product not of developers and their attorneys and not a handful of elected officials trying to maximize their influence,” he said. “The Acme Improvement District [board members] did not try and dictate how the charter would be written to their own benefits or anyone else’s benefits. More than any charters I’ve ever reviewed in my life, Wellington’s charter is a people’s charter. I’m delighted to hear the first thing out of the box is that we need to get the public involved.”
Adams recalled town hall meetings that were packed with residents arguing passionately for their ideas. He said having a lot of public support would help make the task force’s recommendations stick.
“I think whatever ideas we can come up with to involve the public, the better our product will be and the more comfortable the council will be with it,” he said.
Updates on the task force and a schedule of meetings will be available by visiting the village’s web site at www.wellingtonfl.gov.
Certainly, an interesting mix of people, none truly representative of the average Wellington resident. There are 2 multimillionaire equestrians and an advocate who pushed for double taxation for Wellington residents (we pay plenty for schools, not even the Town of Palm Beach or the City of Palm Beach Gardens has double taxation that Wellington residents have; and both of these municipalities have excellent schools. Beware of these advocates. They’ll be hitting residents up for more money.