La Grange Residents to Vote on City Charter Changes in May 1 Election

The City of La Grange general services committee recently completed a review of the City Charter and recommended several changes. Voters will consider those changes in the May 1 City election.

The City must review the charter every 10 years. The committee did not recommend any major changes to the charter. Most of the modifications involve aligning the charter with changes that have been made in state law over the past decade.

“We spent some time updating the (charter) so it falls in line with the state code,” said Councilwoman Kathy Weishuhn, who served on the committee. “We also took out obsolete references.”

The current charter includes masculine pronouns when referring to people. For example, it refers to the mayor as “he,” even though current Mayor Janet Moerbe, a female, has been in office for 20 years. The committee removed those pronouns and replaced them with genderneutral language throughout the document.

Elsewhere in the charter, the committee removed some language deemed obsolete or unenforceable. For example, the charter says the City Manager shall appoint a utilities department manager. The City no longer employs a utility department manager, since the duties of that position are now performed by the assistant city manager. The committee recommended striking the entire section.

Perhaps the most substantive proposed change involves the police chief. The current charter says that the La Grange Chief of Police must establish residency within the city limits within six months of his or her appointment. The committee recommended deleting the residency requirement.

Another minor change involves recall elections. The city charter establishes a process for holding an election to remove elected officers. The committee recommended adding a section that would provide a six-month waiting period before voters could recall a recently-elected council member or mayor.

The committee recommended 19 changes in all. The ballot will ask voters to approve or reject each one individually.