The Kingston Common Council’s Majority Leader has moved to kick off a top-to-bottom review of the city’s governing document. The proposal by Alderman Rennie Scott-Childress (D-Ward 3) calls for forming a commission that would go over every facet of the City Charter with an eye towards modernizing the document to ensure that it reflects the needs and wants of city residents and removing outdated language or processes.

The City Charter is effectively Kingston’s constitution, establishing the structure of city government and delineating the powers of the executive and legislative branches. Changes to the charter must win approval from the Common Council and the mayor, as well as pass a referendum with voters. Scott-Childress’ proposal would create a task force of city residents to review the document and make recommendations. Scott-Childress noted that it had been at least 20 years since there had been any systemic review of the charter.

“In a period of 20 years, things about the way government works, what residents expect, those things can change over time,” said Scott-Childress. “It’s really important that consistent feedback to ensure that your government is working at peak efficiency.”

In a communication to Common Council President Andrea Shaut, Scott-Childress wrote that a charter review could help improve delivery of city services, remove provisions that have been rendered obsolete by changed conditions and establish an appropriate balance of powers to ensure equitable representation of all city residents. He added it’s also possible that the task force would find that there was no need to alter the charter.

The charter last underwent significant change in the 1990s under the late Mayor T.R. Gallo. A charter review task force initially recommended that the city adopt a city manager form of government where an elected council acts as a board of directors with the power to hire and fire a professional administrator to handle the day-to-day operations of city government. Following his election, Gallo moved to drop the city manager concept in favor of its opposite — a “strong mayor” system that was eventually approved by voters.

Some observers believe the abrupt about-face left the mayor with unusually broad powers, including sole authority over appointments to all city boards and commissions. During his first run for office in 2015, Mayor Steve Noble campaigned on calls for charter reform. More recently, Noble has said that under the charter, it’s up to the Common Council to begin the process.

In an email to Kingston Wire, Noble wrote that it would be premature to comment on a charter reform task force since the council has yet to take up discussion on the issue.

“I am supportive of reviewing our charter when necessary and believe that it should be a shared task of the executive and legislative branch if it moves forward,” said Noble.

Shaut has been a longtime proponent of charter review. In a text to Kingston Wire, Shaut wrote that as council president she’s twice called for the creation of a charter review task force. The first time, she said, she did not have the necessary support on the council. More recently, councilmembers had asked her to wait until after the city had adopted its new Kingston Forward zoning code before beginning the process.

“Government should always be a work in progress and I am committed to the belief that examining a charter every so often needs to be a part of this progress,” Shaut said. “I look forward to the conversations with my colleagues and the public.”

The council’s Laws and Rules Committee is expected to take up discussion of Scott-Childress’ proposal at its March meeting. Scott-Childress said he expects a full review of the charter to take one to two years.