Steering committee advances package of charter amendment directives, sends measures to the floor

Chair Billy called the steering-committee meeting to order and led a review of proposed charter amendment directives that the group agreed to move to the floor for the full Ithaca City Charter Revision Commission.

The committee advanced a range of drafting items intended to clarify and modernize the charter. Clyde Letterman, the commission’s secretary, said the legislative powers working group will forward two resolutions related to budget priorities: draft language to allow the council to adopt binding budget guidance and to submit maximum-levy guidance to the city manager, and a provision clarifying that the manager’s budget would be adopted automatically if council fails to adopt one. “They are advancing, I believe for this coming meeting, two different resolutions,” Clyde said.

Members also discussed standardizing language for boards and commissions and addressing where fire and police department provisions appear in the charter so as not to preempt union contracts. Donna Fleming proposed simplifying references to deputy and assistant department heads so the charter does not name specific deputies; members said those positions would remain governed by civil-service and funding processes.

Miranda Pagan introduced amendments renaming the existing “acting mayor” language to a deputy-mayor and alternate-deputy-mayor framework and clarifying line-of-succession procedures. The amendment includes compensation language to specify that deputy roles draw no additional pay for serving in that capacity, but that an individual who fills a permanent mayoral vacancy would receive the compensation council designates for the mayoral office. Isaac Gaylord and others helped refine the drafting language to make the distinction constitutional and procedural rather than budgetary.

Victor Kesler presented a proposal to modernize the city’s notice-of-defect provision (Article 7, C107). The amendment would explicitly state that written notice may be delivered in person, by certified mail or “by any other means formally designated by the city clerk,” and would conform the charter text to General Municipal Law sections 50-e and 50-g and related state law developments about what constitutes written notice.

Billy also previewed a draft memo to comprehensively update Article 4 (taxation and assessments) to remove archaic or potentially preempted provisions, summarize state-controlled items with references to state law, and, where permissible, move detailed fee or penalty structures to the municipal code. He and others agreed that draft will be circulated and discussed later in the agenda cycle because it is broad in scope.

Several items will be passed to the city attorney’s office for legal review before appearing on the full commission agenda. The steering committee set the full commission meeting for April at Ithaca City Hall with a confirmed public comment period and invited speakers, and members agreed to circulate an agenda packet in advance.