City Updates Status Of Charter Project At Public Meeting
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023
The City of Dalton held a public information meeting on Monday night to update the community on the project to draft and enact an updated city charter. The process has been underway since 2022 to update the City’s existing charter, much of which dates back to Dalton’s founding in 1847.
A city’s charter serves as a sort of constitution for the city’s government. It is a grant of powers to the city government by the state and also a broad outline of how the city government should operate. Much of Dalton’s current charter is out of date and no longer reflects modern state law or current practices.
At Monday night’s meeting, City Administrator Andrew Parker gave a presentation on the project that included an outline of why updating the charter is important. Parker’s presentation featured an overview of the history of Dalton’s existing charter and also highlighted several portions of the document that are out of date.
“[When the charter was amended in 1874], only the men of the city could vote, and it details that in the charter,” Parker said Monday night. “So, this was an interesting look back at Dalton’s history but why it’s relevant to today is because Many of these provisions from the 1874 charter are exactly what they were at that time. They’ve been in effect that long. Sometimes that’s good because some things have not changed, but some things have changed and the charter has not been updated and that’s problematic because you want your operating practices to match the powers that are in the charter.”
Another section that Parker highlighted was the fact that different parts of the charter conflict with each other. For example, some parts of the charter say that the ability to fire a police chief or fire chief is solely held by the Public Safety Commission. Another section says that only the City Council has that power. Conflicting passages such as those are resolved by the new charter.
Parker also reviewed some of the key changes that are present in the updated charter. While the structure of the government remains a “weak mayor, strong council” model, those changes include a slight change to the function of the City Administrator’s office. Under the new charter draft, the City Administrator serves as the chief executive officer for the City and all department heads report to the City Administrator while they serve at the pleasure of the Mayor and Council. The City Administrator reports to the Mayor and Council who serve as a board of directors for the City.
Another change makes it clear that all of the various boards and commissions of the City serve as advisory boards to the Mayor and Council. The power of hiring and removal of the police and fire chief is vested with the City Council instead of the Public Safety Commission.
Parker pointed out that the City’s elected leaders and staff are continuing a review of the City’s code of ordinances and the proposed charter to ensure that there are no conflicts. City staff hopes to have a finalized draft ready by the end of the year so it can be submitted to the Georgia General Assembly during its 2024 session. Because of the extensive changes to the existing charter, the new draft must be approved by the legislature. Parker noted that more public work sessions will be taking place as the process continues.
The current draft of the new city charter can be viewed here. A video recording of the full meeting can be viewed below.
