Referred to: The Laws, Rules and Government Services Committee (Chairman Heppner and Legislators Gavaris, Levine, Roberts, and Ronk)

Legislators Joe Maloney, Laura Petit and Kenneth Ronk, Jr. offer the following:

WHEREAS, the Ulster County Charter was adopted by the electors of Ulster County on November 7, 2006, and became effective on January 1, 2009; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to Section C-5(B) of the Ulster County Charter and Section A1-7(B) of the Administrative Code:

“B. Amendment or revision by Commission. Within five years after the enactment of this Charter, and at least every 10 years thereafter, a …a Charter Revision Commission shall be appointed to review and make recommendations to the County Executive and Legislature on amendments, additions or revisions to this County Charter. The Commission shall consist of 11 qualified electors of Ulster County and representing the different geographic areas and reflective of the demographic diversity of the County, with five members appointed by the County Executive, three members to be appointed by the leader of the party in the Legislature with the most members, and three members by the leader of the party in the Legislature with the second most members. No appointee to this Commission shall be a County employee or elected official at the time he or she serves on this Commission.

(1) 

The first meeting of the Commission members shall be convened by the County Executive in the second week after the deadline for its appointment for the purposes of electing a Chairman and receiving its charge. The Chairman of this Commission shall be elected at that meeting by a majority vote of the entire membership of the Commission.”; and

WHEREAS, on September 8, 2011, the first Charter Revision Commission was convened by the County Executive for the purposes described above, and said Commission fulfilled all duties pursuant to Charter; and

WHEREAS, on November 9, 2017, the County Executive convened a Charter Revision Commission tasked with a specific charge; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the minutes of the November 9, 2017 meeting, the County Executive stated, “The purpose of this Commission is to provide a method of redistricting that will be utilized when the results of the 2020 census have been published,” and

WHEREAS, as instructed, the 2017 Commission examined this issue solely; and

WHEREAS, the date the Charter Revision Commission should have been

convened for the purposes described in the Charter was no later than September 2021; and

WHEREAS, since the last full Charter review has occurred, several elected officials and citizens have made various recommendations for Charter changes, or have suggested areas of current Charter language that should be further examined and vetted; and

WHEREAS, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Ulster County Legislature have been diligently working to make their appointments; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, the Ulster County Legislature hereby requests the County Executive swiftly appoint members to the Charter Revision Commission, and convene the first meeting of said Commission within 30 days of adoption of this resolution,   

and moves its adoption.

ADOPTED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:

AYES:                     NOES:               

Passed Committee: Ways and Means on _____________.

FINANCIAL IMPACT:

NONE