Village of Moreland Hills August- September 2008 Message from Mayor Renda Dear Resident, The Moreland Hills Charter Review Commission finished its review of the charter and presented its recommendations at the August Council meeting. As you may know, the Charter essentially outlines the functions and responsibilities of the government of the Village of Moreland Hills. The Charter states that every six years nine residents shall be appointed to a Charter Review Commission; they shall meet for five months to review the Charter and then make recommendations to Council. Council will discuss these recommendations at a Special Meeting on August 26 at 7:00 p.m. Any recommendations for changes to the Charter that Council approves will be voted on by the residents in the November election. I have listed the recommendations below and have included the Commission’s rationale as I understand it. 1. A proposal to increase the size of Council from six members to seven members. This change would help to ensure that the business of the Village can always be done. It takes five affirmative votes of Council to suspend the rules. If we can not suspend the rules, the Ordinances have to be considered at three different meetings. The Commission felt that if there were seven members on Council there would be a higher likelihood that there would always be at least five members present for meetings. Furthermore, there is more work in municipalities than there used to be and it is often more complicated. The Commission felt that there is a need for a Parks and Green Space Committee which should have Council representation. (There are currently six Council Members and six Committees.) Finally, having seven Council members is more common than six throughout municipalities regardless of size. 2. A proposal to require that Council meet within the first seven calendar days of January and that Council pass an ordinance at that meeting establishing the regular meeting schedule of the Council. According to Ohio Revised Code, Council must pass a budget for the Village by the end of March. Having an organizational meeting in January will ease the pressures of that requirement by having the heads of committees appointed before the end of January. The Charter currently dictates that there will be one Council meeting per month. Giving Council the right to schedule their own meetings will allow them to schedule two meetings in months during which there is traditionally a lot of business or to cancel a meeting during a month when there is little or no business. 3. A proposal clarifying that a Chief of Police is the head of the Police Department and that the Chief of Police serves under the direction of the Mayor. This proposal would not change the way the Village currently operates, but instead, simply clarifies existing vague language. 4. A proposal to repeal a section of the Charter relating to the Civil Service Commission. A Civil Service Commission is unnecessary for villages but is required for cities. The Charter Review Commission feels that there will not be enough development in Moreland Hills to push the population above 5000 and, thus, Moreland Hills will never become a city. Removing this section is a “housekeeping” issue. 5. A proposal to correct a typographical error contained within the Charter. Again, this is a “housekeeping” issue. 6. A proposal to provide for gender neutral language throughout the Charter. The last Charter Review Commission requested that the Charter contain gender neutral language. Two instances were missed and this Commission is recommending that those two instances be changed to be consistent with the rest of the Charter. I would like to thank the members of the Charter Review Commission for their five months of service to the Village. They took their task very seriously and had many thoughtful and productive debates. In other business at the Council Meeting I swore in two new police officers (see the article elsewhere in this newsletter) and gave proclamations to Laraine Canzonetta and Steve Hegner honoring their many years of service to the children of our Village through their work at the Orange Schools. Speaking of the Orange Schools, congratulations to Moreland Hills resident, Sam Steinhouse, who was recently appointed to the Orange School Board. Please remember to recycle. |