Article XI

[Gene Harris]

Article XI

11.06 acceptance of gifts No officer or employee of the city shall accept directly or indirectly “in accordance with State law”, any non cash item from any …..


11.14 not sure I get the sidebar comments in the initial amendments to charter


11.15 reference question raised by TP104? What does “would be competent mean”? Replace “would be competent” to “would be legal”


11.19 whistle blower added

 

[Robert Owen]

********** NOTE: THIS GENERAL PROVISION ARTICLE IS NOW RENUMBERED AS ARTICLE XII *****************

 

[Robert Owen]

Article XI

11.06 acceptance of gifts No officer or employee of the city shall accept directly or indirectly “in accordance with State law”, any non cash item from any …..


11.14 not sure I get the sidebar comments in the initial amendments to charter


11.15 reference question raised by TP104? What does “would be competent mean”? Replace “would be competent” to “would be legal”


11.19 whistle blower added

11.06 - Tracey's comment regarding "in accordance with State law" in the redline draft references the permissibility in State law of employees receiving non cash gifts valued up to $50. On the first pass, we chose to be more restrictive and prohibit any gifts except advertising of a nominal value. Are you suggesting now that we should allow gifts up to $50 as allowed by state law?

11.14 - That was taken from an email exchange with CA via Councilor Prince where we asked if Council can make charter amendments on their own initiative between Charter Review Committee reviews, or does council have to have a recommendation from a CRC to act. The CA answer was "yes", city council may propose amendments on their own, but amendments can only be proposed on the ballot every two years. The context was we wanted to know if voter's approved three year terms in 2026, could council on their own propose term limits in 2027. With the re-write process, the question is no longer an issue.

11.15 - Noted with respect to changing competent to legal.
TP104 was a suggestion that we discussed and decided to leave as is, meaning we recognize federal law as supreme and binding as state law, throughout the charter.

11.19 - yes, we voted to add whistleblower protections in the first review.

 

[Robert Owen]

Working Draft of Article XII (formerly Article XI)

I'm hopeful we can come to consensus on this prior to our meeting on the 18th to minimize any editing required the morning of the 19th prior to the council meeting.

If you suggest changes, please also include actual language. I will not have an opportunity to confirm edits on the 19th.

 

[Lynda Aird]

12.17 The section of the LGC that establishes types of municipalities refers to Home-Rule (and General-Law) with a hyphen in home-rule, our Charter should be consistent with the Code.
12.19 does make sense after 12.11
I recommend leaving out the Rockport P&Z language (CoV P&Z always had as their Secretary a member of DS, that person attended every P&Z meeting and did the Minutes, currently a member of the DS department does the Minutes although is not in attendance at the meetings)
I recommend the adoption if Aubrey 11.05 Wording Interpretation and 11.06 Renumbering . . .
12.15 substituting "legal" for competent - I agree
12.14 I recommend leaving the the Charter reviews to be conducted at least every 4 years as Charter now states; and recommend appointing 3 to 7 members (instead of the 3 to 6 that the Charter now states)
12.11 2. recommend the section as highlighted in the draft lines 102-107
12.18 lines 182-186 recommended

 

[Robert Owen]

Gene

11.06 - Tracey's comment regarding "in accordance with State law" in the redline draft references the permissibility in State law of employees receiving non cash gifts valued up to $50. On the first pass, we chose to be more restrictive and prohibit any gifts except advertising of a nominal value. Are you suggesting now that we should allow gifts up to $50 as allowed by state law?

Gene, I stand corrected on 11.06. I double checked our prior recommendations and we did recommend aligning our Charter, which was more restrictive with the ethics policy. That recommendation approved 6/18/25 but was not reflected in the draft we've been working from.

I will update 11.06, now 12.06, as per our prior recommendation.

 

[Robert Owen]

Updates to what is now Article 12 based on feedback above and my own suggestions. Please review this 12.15..26 version of Article 12 and continue feedback.

 

[Robert Owen]

Updates to what is now Article 12 based on feedback above and my own suggestions. Please review this 2.15.26 version of Article 12 and continue feedback.