EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF TROY

July 27, 2015

INTRODUCTION

The Troy Charter Review Commission, which earlier this year was tasked with updating and improving the document that defines the form and function of the City of Troy, New York, has delivered a semifinal draft of the new document that will go before the citys voters in November of this year. The Commission is a nine-member, nonpartisan appointed panel of citizens working without financial compensation. The entire document the Commission is proposing is available to the public via the city website (troyny.gov) -- under Bulletins -- as is the current version of the Charter. The draft document will be finalized by the Commission after a sixth and final public hearing, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, August 10, at City Hall, then sent to the Board of Elections for inclusion on the November 2015 ballot. The draft document eliminates pages of outdated or redundant material, has been reformatted to take into account all proposed changes and improve readability, has been made gender neutral, and continues a number of changes, as listed below. However, these are not all the changes being recommended. The public is urged to review the document and send any suggestions to the Commission, care of the Citys Corporation Counsel Ian Silverman, Troy City Hall, 433 River Street, Troy NY 12180, by August 10.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The proposed changes to the Troy City Charter include: Reduction of the City Council to seven (7) members from the present nine (9). This would have no effect on the six (6) district seats. This would be accomplished by eliminating two of the three current at-large seats before the November 2019 election. The remaining seat would be a directly elected President of the Council, serving a four-year-term. Each district seat would

continue to have a two-year term. The maximum number of consecutive years of service for all Council members would remain at eight (8). The change is meant to reflect the smaller population of the City compared to when the Council was increased to nine (9) seats, and save the taxpayers at least $30,000 in salaries annually. Voters would be given the opportunity to directly elect a President of the Council, rather than continuing the present practice of having the highest vote-getter among those running for three at-large seats become President. A four-year term would recognize the difficulties of running on a citywide basis every 24 months, which the Commission believes to be an onerous one compared to having to run only in a district. The delay until 2019 would allow the election for President of the Council to be put on the same cycle as the election for Mayor. The City Council would be required to appoint an unpaid Independent Redistricting Commission of seven (7) members to examine federally-supplied census information drawn from each 10-year census to ascertain that the population of each of the Citys six (6) electoral districts complies with proper distribution percentages. If the Commission determines there is noncompliance, it then will create a proposal to modify district boundaries to come into compliance, which then would be voted upon by the City Council. No more than four (4) members of the Commission would be registered members of the same political party. The purpose of this change is to take the mechanics of redistricting out of the hands of the Council in hopes of eliminating gerrymandering or other politically motivated actions, while maintaining the Councils responsibility to voters of the City as a whole. The budgeting cycle would be advanced one full month at each step in the process to avoid last-minute confusion and contention as have been experienced in recent years. The Department of Public Works would be reorganized into the Department of General Services, and the Office of Parks and Recreation would come under its supervision and control. A list of terms used within the Charter would be created as the opening section of a new Charter to avoid conflicting interpretations. Qualifications would be updated and/or enumerated for a variety of professional positions to assure the hiring of the best possible candidates for employment.

Provisions would be made throughout the Charter to improve public access to information through wider dissemination of notices, documents and such other items as might occur. Roughly a third of the current Charters provisions have been eliminated to reduce duplication and redundancy. In other instances, when a provision mirrors state law, the new Charter would refer to the applicable law rather than retain the current practice of including overly wordy recitations of the particulars. Examples can be found in references to the duties and operation of courts in the City, and the operation of the Municipal Civil Service Commission.

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