An opportunity to make city charter changes

CURRENTS

In the past 20-some-odd years, it has been a rare event for the various seated Westminster city councils to place proposed City Charter amendments on the ballot for the voters to decide.

Prior to 2001, it was a regular process to review the charter and decide what charter changes were appropriate to recommend to the city council. Some years there were none.

Given the fact that the City Charter was adopted by the voters in 1958, it makes sense to update relevant sections or add new policies or provide clari cation to keep the City Charter in tune with the times. ere was no need for this extra step leading up to any concrete proposal to put on the ballot for voters to consider, but both then-Mayor Herb Atchison and then-City Manager Don Tripp were quite open with me in expressing their strong opposition to the concept of creating wards to elect council members. Anyway, the idea of changing to a di erent system never received a fair opportunity and voters clearly defeated the garbled amendment. While all six members of the council and the mayor voted to put the amendment on the ballot, those who quietly wanted it defeated could then say that they let the people have their say.

Later this month, the city council will be considering possible City Charter amendments for this November’s ballot. at noti cation has me excited. ere are needed changes that have popped up over the past few years including revisiting the idea of changing how city council members are elected. Speci cally, I am referring to the concept of a combination wards/at-large system.

2021 amendment approach was bogus e language prepared by the city administration for the Nov. 2021 voting district process was purposely convoluted and somewhat vague. It would have set up a commission to look at various ways to elect city council members.

Why should voters respond this time?

Currently, all City Councilors are elected at-large, by the voters in the