Kingston’s newly formed Charter Commission will meet for the first time Wednesday kicking off the first potential overhaul of the city’s governing document in three decades. The process will culminate in November 2027 when any changes recommended by the commission will be on the ballot alongside contests for mayor and the Common Council.

The city charter acts as Kingston’s constitution. It lays out the structure of government, the roles and responsibilities of city departments, the terms of elected officials and more. Any changes to the charter must be approved by referendum. State municipal law lays out a process for charter changes that requires a volunteer commission to study and recommend changes to the document.

The last charter commission formed in 1993 illustrates the potentially sweeping changes that could come out of the new one. The commission recommended moving to a city manager system in which day-to-day duties now performed by an elected mayor would instead be done by a professional manager hired by and accountable to a city council presided over by a mayor whose duties would be largely ceremonial. The referendum passed in November 1993.

But immediately upon taking office in January 1994 – before the city manager system went into effect, then-mayor T.R. Gallo formed a new charter commission stacked with his supporters. The new body went through the previous commission’s recommended changes and replaced the words “city manager” with “mayor.” The new referendum passed in November 1994. The result was the “strong mayor” system currently in place that grants the city’s chief executive broad power over city government with relatively few checks and balances from the Common Council.

There have been calls for changes to the charter for many years, including by Mayor Steve Noble in his first run for office in 2015. But it was not until last year that the council, at the urging of Council President Andrea Shaut and then-Third Ward alderman and council majority leader Rennie Scott-Childress got the process underway by allocating $100,000 to the effort. To get the funding, the council had to override a veto from Noble. Noble has said that while he could support changes to the charter, he did not favor an open-ended process that could lead to sweeping changes in city government without input from elected officials. Instead, Noble suggested the council form its own committee to study more narrowly targeted changes.

The 18-member commission which will meet for the first time on Wednesday, Sept. 23, was formed with help from the National Civic Lottery, a nonprofit good government group that assists communities in putting together decision-making bodies that mirror its demographics. The group was chosen by the council and paid from the $100,000 allocated to the commission. The resulting commission is a hybrid body made up of three members appointed by the mayor, three chosen by the council and 12 chosen by an NCL-facilitated lottery.

In selecting the randomly chosen volunteers, NCL drew from a pool of 227 city residents who registered for the lottery. As part of the registration process, potential commission members were asked their age, race, neighborhood and whether they rent or own their residence. The data was then processed through the open-source Panelot platform that randomly selected a panel that reflected the demographics and geography of Kingston.

The randomly chosen volunteers include three residents of the city’s First Ward, two from Wards 3 and 8 and one each from four of the city’s five other wards. Ward 2 was not included among the randomly selected volunteers. Five panel members self-reported living in Uptown Kingston, three in Midtown and four Downtown. The panel includes five men, six women and one person who reported their gender as non-binary. The racial makeup of the randomly chosen volunteers includes six white members, one each Asian/Pacific islander and latino, two black members and two who described themselves as multiracial. The chosen 12 are evenly split between homeowners and renters. Three are between the ages of 18 and 29, four are 30-44, two are 45-59 and three are over 60. They are:

Mark Brown
Lara DeLeo
Allie Detinger
Malia Du Mont
Danielle Garris
Leigh Kamioner
Shataya McComb
Kathleen Mihm
Neil Millens
Stephanie Minn
Dan Nelson
Mitch Noel
Eric Rios
Noah Sarubbi
Justin Stenerson
Chelsea Villalba
Jeanne Vitale
Tim Weidemann

For their picks, the council chose three more names from the original pool of 227 applicants. Noble, meanwhile, put out a call for applications before appointing former city fire chief Mark Brown; former county director of economic development Tim Weidemann, who now works in the office of former Ulster County executive and current U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan; and Malia Du Mont, chief of staff and vice president for strategy and policy at Bard College.

The commission will hold its first public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Council Chambers at City Hall and will be live-streamed on the city’s YouTube channel. There will be no public speaking period at the meeting. The commission will continue to meet regularly to review the charter and eventually recommend changes. The group will receive legal advice from the city’s Corporation Counsel’s Office and has a small budget to pay legal fees if needed. The commission has also received assistance from city communications director Summer Smith and Council President Shaut.

In a message to Kingston Wire, Shaut said she would continue to help facilitate the commission but would not be involved in any discussions or decisions regarding the actual charter.

“I will take a hands-off approach to any decision-making as that is for the commissioners,” Shaut said.