Proposed Charter Changes Go to Council

Only a handful of people turned out Monday for the Charter Revision Commission's public hearing on the changes it is proposing be implemented to the Town Charter.

Those changes, including transitioning some elected offices from two- to four-year terms and decreasing the percentage of voters needed to petition a budget referendum, would be the first to the Town Charter in almost three decades.

The auditorium at Hamden Middle School was for the most part empty for the hearing, a fact that irked Dunbar Hill Civic Association president Bill Burns.

"People just don't care," he lamented to the commission. He attended 28 of the commission's 29 meetings, Burns said, and there were only a handful of people in attendance at those meetings as well.

On Tuesday, the commission's work will be formally submitted to the Legislative Council and to the Town Clerk's office, according to the commission's attorney Steven Mednick. The council then has 45 days to hold another public hearing on the document, he said.

From the date of the public hearing -- which has been set for May 25 at 7 p.m. at Thornton Wilder Auditorium at Miller Memorial Library -- the council then has 15 days to act on whether to send the changes to a vote this November.

If approved, it then has to formulate the question that will appear on the ballot, Mednick said.