City Charter Commission Executive Summary by Annie Rice

Goals of the Commission

A transparent, reliable, public-engaged process every 10 years to review and reform our charter as needed as the City of St. Louis grows and changes and adapts.

Any changes proposed or requested or needed to the charter to better improve functions of our city government or city services. Or none at all should the commission not come to a consensus..

Makeup of the Commission:

• 9 voting members: submitted by members of the BOA, nominated by the Mayor, approved by the BOA.
• 6 ex-officio, nonvoting members: Mayor, President of the Board, Comptroller, City Counselor, Chairperson of the IGA committee, Director of Personnel

Timeline:

• Submission to the voters November 2022
• Application process begins December 2022 open 30 days
• Applications sent from Mayor to BOA 7 days (January 9, 2023)
• BOA members select 2 applicants each and sends to Mayor 15 days (January 24, 2023)
• Mayor selects 9 nominees and sends to BOA-15 days (February 8, 2023)
• Committee of the BOA holds hearings on nominees & votes to confirm or not 30 days (March 10, 2023)
• If any nominees rejected, Mayor submits new name from the pool within 7 days
• If any remaining open positions on April 15th hat draw process
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• Commission appointments begin May 1st, 2023 and first public meeting no later than May 15th
• Commission discharged within one year of its first public meeting May 15th, 2024
• Submission of any charter or amendments to the voters at a primary or general election no earlier than 60 days, no later than one year from this point goal is either August or November 2024

Pros of this timeline:

• Any revisions to the charter would be submitted to voters in time for a fall election cycle.
• More voter participation for these charter changes.
• If we delay, there is a possibility of falling out of time to an off year for fall elections or needing a municipal election cycle for the changes.
• This currently elected Board would have the ability to nominate members of this first commission.
• In our transition to a legislative body of 14, there may be charter changes needed as we
• adapt and this sets out a transparent, public process for making those changes.

Challenges:

• We need to pass this bill by our July 15th recess to meet the deadline for the November ballot.
• At least one more committee hearing with public testimony
• Needs to be in front of the full board by not later than July 8.

Concerns about other charter amendments needed this does NOT preclude the Board of Aldermen from submitting other charter changes directly to the voters. However, this Commission can be useful in maintaining congruity in any charter amendments approved by the voters.

Internal vs external charter changes any charter amendments submitted to the voters via initiative petition do not have the same guidelines for public meetings, sunshineable record keeping, and public participation as this Commission would have as a government body. This body would also be supervised by the City Counselor’s office and would have that expertise on hand to ensure that any changes have a much higher potential for success for the City departments and our functions.

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