Updating the Charter

I attended a public forum this morning, organized by my opponent, Barbara Jass (thanks, Barbara!), where the City Charter Commission, chaired by Dave Rissberger, presented the changes recommended in the proposed charter, and led a spirited discussion of the issues, mostly regarding the addition of a City Manager.

This is, of course, not a county issue, but it will be – there is still some interest in pursuing the creation of a County Manager position – and everyone in the 11^th District is a City resident, so I thought it was important. The perfectly understandable objections to the addition of a City Manager revolve around the cost, and the addition another level of bureaucracy.

Rissberger, and four members of the commission who assisted him in the forum, made cogent points which addressed these concerns. Most cities our size have a City Manager, and one of their primary responsibilities would be to save money by reducing inefficiencies and waste. For instance, a City Manager would be responsible for making sure that all the City's various insurance policies – now, for the most part, just renewed automatically – are the best deal for the protection they provide. They would write and follow through on grants; there are a lot of examples of cities (and, in my experience, other organizations) who don't have the resources to manage grants through to the end, and end up losing them. The example of Cherry Street was presented; it was, apparently, dug up twice within a year or two, because the work – done by a variety of city departments and private corporations - wasn't coordinated well enough.

Former Mayor Dave Brenner spoke about the difficulty of being Mayor part-time, and holding together all the various parts of the city by “cajoling and negotiating.” The old charter wasn't any help with this – it made it harder – and the new charter, including the City Manager, will allow everyone to do what they do best: administrators will administrate, and elected officials will develop policy based on the needs of the people of Oneonta. Brenner warned, however, that we shouldn't expect the City Manager to save his or her whole salary in the first year, although those savings will come, and they will be substantial. Duly noted. But there's a vacant post – Municipal Facilities and Operations Manager – that may not have to be filled if a City Manager is hired. That'll go a long way to making up the added salary, which only represents about 1% of the City budget.

The proposed charter can be found here; the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), a must-read, is here. More public forums are planned:

September 19, 7PM at the American Legion

October 10, 7PM at the United Methodist Church (organized by League of Women Voters)

October 13, 12 Noon, at the Elks Club (organized by Rotary; all welcome)

As Chairman Rissberger noted, please “read, think, ask questions and make comments.” Roger that.