Charter Review Committee Presents Final Recommendations

The South Orange Charter Review, a group of seven citizens and trustees who are charged with evaluating how the charter that governs South Orange is working, presented its final recommendations to the Board of Trustees as to which parts of the charter should be changed.  Rusty Burwell, a civilian member of the committee, presented the group’s findings to the board.

Among the major changes proposed were:

1. Change “Township of South Orange Village” to “South Orange Village”
2. Change “Village President” to “Mayor;” and, change “Board of Trustees” to “Village Council”
3. Change biennial elections from May to November
4. Provide Village President and Trustees with annual stipends without any other benefits
5. Change adoption of resolutions to require affirmative vote of majority of Trustees present, not merely Trustees who voted
6. Allow Village President to have the right to vote on adoption of the budget

These recommendations remained unchanged since the on May 25.  However, a suggestion brought up by an attendee at that forum and adopted by the Charter Review committee was the recommendation that the Board of Trustees pursue a non-binding referendum in November 2011 that allows the voters to weigh in on the issues of the town’s name, names of elected officials, election dates and stipends.  The results of this referendum would not affect any current law, but would let the Board of Trustees know what the public’s views were.

The decision of how to proceed now falls to the Board of Trustees.  Among the options to be considered is whether to have a binding referendum which allows the voters to decide, the non-binding resolution which will help the Board of Trustees know what the public thinks or a direct resolution from the Board of Trustees without public participation.  Following passage, the changes will be presented to the New Jersey State Legislature for approval.

The Board of Trustees will be discussing this issue in public at the next Conference Agenda meeting on July 11.  South Orange residents will also have the option of weighing in at this meeting.