Chandler charter amendments not going to voters in July

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

Chandler’s City Council convinced voters to approve a pair of charter amendments in November of last year.

Council is likely going to ask again this November for more charter changes — but it isn’t yet clear how many.

Recommendations from a Feb. 2 work session, after hearing from both the city attorney and the chair of a charter review committee, led to council to not pursue having charter changes on the July primary ballot.

While changes to move up the primary election to the last Tuesday in July would have made it either rushed or impractical to put charter changes on that ballot, the window for the Nov. 3 election involves a June deadline for getting ballot language to Maricopa County.

Mayor Kevin Hartke polled the Council informally at the Feb. 2 work session, finding there was no Council member with a strong need to get the changes onto the July primary ballot.

Hartke called for at least one more upcoming work session on the recommendations, pointing out that there are options for a special election or other options beyond the Nov. 3 general election.

Council clarified, with the City Clerk, that costs of various elections can be made greater by standing alone, versus splitting election costs with school districts, utilities or other special districts who have Chandler residents included in an election.

A couple of Council members did have concerns about putting too many items on any one ballot. O.D. Harris said not only would more than four ballot questions start to fatigue or confuse voters, but the city should take its time and roll out the potential changes in straightforward wording to the public.

“Even if it’s over an extensive period of time, we know there are probably, really, only about 10% of voters who regularly follow what we do and know all the terminology, so we need to take our time to reach that other 90%,” O.D. Harris said.
Here are the review committee’s recommendations:

• Gender neutrality, grammar, punctuation, capitalization and elimination of “legalese.”

• Changes to clarify existing provisions, align with state law and remove outdated initial-adoption language. Key changes include clarifying contract authority in Article I, clarifying reimbursement policies, city employment prohibition, petition rights and eliminating outdated utility rate references in Article II and striking obsolete initial-adoption sections in Article X.

• Changes that bring the charter’s “resign to run” provisions in line with Arizona state law, making the moment of required resignation as when petition signatures are turned in, rather than a public statement of filing a notice of intent.

• Authorizes the city manager to establish, organize or alter the offices and departments of the city, subject to the review and approval of the city council by resolution, and eliminating the ordinance requirement.

• Eliminate the second reading of ordinances. Deputy City Manager Ryan Peters said staff could work with Council on a more specific charter change that would keep consequence-associated ordinances at two readings, such as new misdemeanor crimes that call for fines, while designating other development-related ordinances, for example, as single-read in order to help business move smoothly.

• Expands prohibited discrimination grounds by adding “gender” and “other protected status” to an existing list.

• Eliminates automatic requirement that department heads establish residency in the city within six months of appointment; continues residency requirement for city manager; authorizes council to require residency as a condition for any other position council appoints.

• Clarifies that the vice mayor is selected at the first regular City Council meeting in January of each year, rather than within a specified number of days.

Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.