Three charter amendments on the ballot in Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant voters will face large-scale political decisions on Tuesday, but will also decide the outcome of some proposed changes to the local city charter.

The first proposed amendment asks voters if the first annual organization meeting for the city commission can be held at some point in January.

Right now the charter is very specific that the meeting must be called on the first Monday of January at 8 p.m., Mayor Bruce Kilmer said.

“Sometimes that hasn’t worked out to be the best first meeting of the year, so the charter amendment would just say we would call the first meeting, which would be somewhere in the first two weeks of January,” Kilmer said.

City Manager Kathie Grinzinger said allowing the commission to set the meeting would help make sure the meeting is on a date with the greatest availability of the commission and availability of the public.

The second proposed amendment for city residents is amending the city charter to state that the city clerk will post a notice of each special meeting of the commission at least 18 hours before the meeting.

Right now the charter requires notice be posted 12 hours before the time of a special meeting, but switching it to 18 hours will put the city in compliance with state law, Grinzinger said.

“Whether voters officially change the charter or not, we will still do exactly what state law requires,” she said. “The confusion just comes in when someone looks in our charter and sees we are doing what charter says, but state laws have changed since when the charter was first written in the ’60s or ’70s.”

The final amendment for the charter would allow appointed members of any city agency, board or committee serve without term limits.

Grinzinger said the charter currently requires that no volunteer can serve more than two consecutive terms on the same board.

“What we have found over the years is that we have wonderful community volunteers who want to continue helping out with our parks and recreation department, library board or zoning administration, but the charter doesn’t allow that,” Grinzinger said. “It seems more reasonable to base that decision on if our volunteers are doing a great job and helping the city. If they are and there is a vacancy, they should be allowed to stay.”

The amendment would still allow a person to be terminated if necessary.