Committee Reviews La Grange City Charter

The City of La Grange General Services Committee held its first meeting to review the City Charter on Tuesday, June 16.

The City is undertaking a once-in-a-decade review of the City Charter, which is the City’s most important governing document. It stipulates the number of council seats, how elections and appointments are to take place, proscribes methods of recalling the mayor and council members and provides a way for citizens to propose legislation. In other words, it acts as the constitution for the city government.

City Manager Shawn Raborn said the City typically reviews the charter every 10 years to ensure that it complies with state laws that have been passed since the last review. The committee is made up of Mayor Pro Tem John “Honza” Cernosek, Councilwoman Jan Dockery and Councilwoman Kathy Weishuhn.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the committee reviewed the first three sections of the charter. The only change the committee discussed involved extending the time period for appointing a council person in the case of a vacancy. The charter currently gives the Council 30 days to make an appointment. The committee discussed possibly extending the time period to 60 days.

Raborn said the General Services Committee would meet once a month to discuss the charter before presenting their recommendations at the Nov. 23 Council meeting. Raborn said the Council would vote in January 2021 over whether to propose any changes. Any changes would ultimately have to be approved by the voters of La Grange. The election would take place in May 2021.