Wednesday, April 16, 2008

April 15 Revisions to Charter Petition

The KCP Committee has submitted some improvements to some of the petition documents, summarized here. Attached are links to the new proposals and some comments of mine.

Consistency Amendment- DROPPED.

Executive Branch Streamlining- no proposed changes yet, but the letter refers to keeping the Property Assessor as elected. I support letting either form go to the people for a vote.

Reducing Size of Commission- I don't agree with it, but again, I'm all for letting it come up for healthy debate and a vote. I'd prefer this to be delayed to allow for more debate, but as long as people know what they would be giving up (2 commissioners down to 1.22, and less choice/variety among candidates, in my opinion).

Conflict of Interest Amendments 1 and 2
Amended to define conflict as employee/official, their spouse, and their children living in the same household. Children out of the house (e.g, old enough to enter into contracts), brothers, sisters, etc- No conflict at all! Hogwash. This thing doesn't go far enough for my tastes, but it's a start- let the people vote. Even if it passes, I would bring up a stronger version to close the giant loopholes.

Nepotism
Much better. Includes in-laws, step-relatives, and grand-relatives, and "parent substitutes" (e.g., foster relationships). I'm all for this one now.

Qualifications
The overly broad "compensation...directly or indirectly" has been changed to direct employment, which solves a lot of problems caused by the "indirectly" clause. This one is good to go, and I support it.

Inspector General
Resolution of salary questions.

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