Newly elected Hamden Council President Dominique Baez, who will appoint charter revision commission members.
In its first official meeting of the year, Hamden’s new Legislative Council chose to put charter revision back on the table by voting to form a second — and smaller — commission to update the document.
The charter requires revision every ten years, and was last edited by Hamden’s past Legislative in 2020 through a process that involved hundreds of hours of volunteer labor, tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and numerous legislative workshops and heated debates.
It was then to go before voters in November 2021 for a once-in-a-decade up-or-down referendum. The proposed revision aimed at increasing financial transparency and accountability and moving to four-year mayoral terms. But a surprise last-minute veto by the council’s Republicans and centrist Democrats killed it. (Read about that vote — and the reactions of council members and commissioners — in detail here. )
Hamden’s progressive Democrats promised during their summer and fall campaign to get it back on the next ballot in November 2022. They won the election — and are now moving to carry out that promise.
On Monday, the newly progressive-led Council began that process by voting to form a new commission to revive the process rather than wait ten more years. All three Republicans on the council — Marjorie Bonadies, Lesley DeNardis, and Betty Wetmore — voted against the formation of another commission.
Sarah Gallagher and Lauren Garrett speaking to a Hamden resident about resurrecting the charter back in August.
Dominique Baez — who was unanimously chosen as council president during an organizational meeting held by the council on Nov. 29 — will select the commission’s members.
She said the new commission should follow an abbreviated process, working “with all the documents the last commission worked with.” She cited the long hours put in by past commissioners to reap public input, strategize with government experts across the state, and draft new language.
For that reason, the commission, which must be assembled by mid-January, will be made up of just five individuals. (The last commission included a total of 15 people.) Attorney Steve Mednick, who has advised both of Hamden’s past two charter revisions throughout the past two decades, will return to work on the upcoming charter.
On Monday, council Minority Leader Bonadies, who described the recently revised charter draft as a “leftwing manifesto,” voiced reluctance to go through the editing process twice within two consecutive years.
“I just want to bring attention to the fact that we spent over $100,000 on that attorney in an effort that failed, and now we’re gonna use the exact same one and create the exact same scenario,” she said.
Sarah Gallagher, a new council member who served on the prior Charter Revision Commission (CRC), disagreed. She called Mednick “a nonpartisan national attorney that deals with charter commissions,” noting that he has worked on charters in Hartford, Middletown, and most major cities in Connecticut. “He is kinda one of the experts in the field,” she concluded.
Councilwoman Katie Kiely described the last minute surprise rejection of the charter revision as the waste of money. She suggested that the current council be more transparent about “asking our commission questions as they come up so that it does not crumble at the end … We have to make sure that we’re not wasting town resources.”
Bonadies also expressed concern that there would be a lack of Republican representation on the commission. She argued that seven to nine commission members would allow for a more inclusive mix of individuals rather than five, which is the smallest commission size legally allowable. She pointed to Garrett’s nomination of a Working Families Party candidate to fill a minority party space on the Police Commission as signaling that “Republicans need not apply” to such positions. She noted that far more Hamden voters are registered as Republican than Working Families.
DeNardis echoed Bonadies, citing “fear” that any appointed non-Republican minority party members would be granted “disproportionate influence” given their “smaller population.”
Hamden's Legislative Council on Zoom Monday night.
Under state law, a five-member charter revision commission (CRC) can include up to three Democrats and must feature at least two individuals from different parties. So it is legal for two Working Families Party candidates to fill those spots, though whether or not it will deepen division within an already highly partisan council and town is another question.
Baez said her “primary” goal in selecting and appointing commission members is to identify individuals with a strong “understanding of the charter,” meaning the powers of the document as well as the process involved in producing a revised version.
“We shouldn’t worry about party as much as content,” she stated, adding that “there won’t be any illegal funny business.”
As for recruitment, Baez said she will seek Steve Mednick’s advice on best practices regarding how to put together a list of potential commissioners. She also said she will count on council members with experience working on the charter, like Gallagher, to interview candidates and to provide herself with suggestions on whom to pick before she actually appoints all five people. Anyone who is interested, she noted, can contact council Clerk Kim Renta.
Steve Mednick, who will return to advise Hamden's charter revision process.
“Unless the new council feels that the work was totally off base,” Mednick said, “my operating assumption is that this will be a remedial exercise, because they don’t have the time to start from scratch.”
He pointed out that the commission will convene four months later than the last one, which first assembled in September of 2020.
The council cannot put the exact same draft forward to the council without making any edits. It is understood that the previous commission already performed a significant amount of legwork through 39 public meetings to determine how the public would like to see the document changed.
Mednick, who has worked on two abbreviated charter processes in Hartford and New Britain throughout the past three decades, said it is not uncommon to put members of the prior commission back on the new commission to “maintain continuity” and maximize efficiency.
He said that council members may also serve on charter revision commissions. So, for example, Sarah Gallagher could return to the new commission even though she is now also serving on the Legislative Council. (When asked if she would apply for a spot on the commission, she said she was unsure.)
Baez cheering a Democratic campaign rally this summer: Elections have consequences.
During this second attempt to modernize the charter, Democrats are expected to hold nearly all of the power in the ongoing decision-making process, from selecting commission members to revising and voting on the final document. The three Republicans on the council cannot veto the charter if all of the progressives show up and support the final product.
Progressives may use that power to not only bring back proposals like creation of a police civilian review board, which was abandoned because of the veto; but to add newer ideas that previously wouldn’t have passed a council largely made up of Democrats who leaned to the center.
For example, Councilman Justin Farmer, who was selected as president pro tempore in November, suggested reincorporating language from this summer’s failed draft that would expand commissions to guarantee district representation; he has abstained from voting on appointments to commissions for months in an act of protest until the council ensures more equitable representation across the board.
“I’m also excited about what’s not in the charter,” Farmer said. He said this moment presents a chance to work with state representatives on enabling legislation to separate the police and traffic commissions into separate groups of members with distinct expertise.
Gallagher pointed out that two additional public input sessions are required through the charter revision process. If residents raise issues that were missed during the first round of public discussion, they can be considered for the final version.
Bonadies, meanwhile, said that she will continue to vote against policies like a four-year mayoral term. “That’s too long to go unchecked by the electorate,” she reasoned. She also said she will oppose reinstatement of the previously proposed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission and a finance board, the first of which she called redundant and the second of which she described as a “usurpation of the council’s duties.”
She criticized the previous 145-page charter for its length. She warned against adding unneeded “extra layers of government.”
Overall, Baez said, “the commission is going to do work, and they’re going to build off the work that’s already been done.”
“There will be things seen that we weren’t able to see before,” she said.