What is the Clark County Charter?
The Clark County Charter is the governing document for the county government here in Clark County. In an event in September, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey called it the county’s bylaws (link to video of this below in resources). I have others call the Charter the county’s constitution.
The Charter is split into 11 articles that outline the basics of the county government. That includes the power of the county government, the structure of the county government, the separation of powers between the branches of the county government, how elections, initiatives, and referenda are conducted, and the rules that the county government needs to follow. The charter itself is not terribly long, and you can go ahead and read it. Most of the charter is clear and straight forward, but there are places where it is not clear and I do think that should be one of the Charter Review Commission’s priorities.
What is the Charter Commission?
The Charter Review Commission is written into the Charter itself and is a body that is elected to review and propose changes to the Charter. The current charter says a Commission of fifteen (15) members (three (3) for each council district) will be elected every five (5) years. The Commission will operate for up to two (2) years, though the Commission can choose to end its work early. The Commission will then organize itself as a body to internally review the charter, hold public meetings, receive public feedback, and discuss the adoption of the amendments to the charter that will be placed on the ballot for the voters to approve or reject.
What can the Charter Commission do?
The Charter Commission’s role is to propose amendments to the Clark County Charter that will be placed on a ballot for voters to approve or reject.
The commissioners are not paid for their time or service. The commission will be given a budget by the County to conduct its work.
The previous Charter Commission organized itself into committees to review specific subject areas and then collected information on those subject areas, wrote up proposed amendments, sought public feedback, and then finalized the amendments they wished to propose. There is not required or set procedure in place for how the commission does its work.
What can’t the Charter Commission do?
The Charter Commission cannot propose or adopt ordinances for the county. The Charter Commission cannot adopt Charter Amendments, it can only propose amendments to the voters.
In addition to what it cannot do, there is a lot of discussion around what the Charter Commission should not do. It does not seem clear to me that the Charter Commission cannot propose amendments that are in conflict with state law, though it is also seems clear to me that it should not propose amendments that would be struck down in the courts.
One of the issues I have added to my campaign is restraint. The Charter Commission should show restraint and not try to set policy through the charter. I think there are both legal, practical, and values based reasons to oppose setting policy into the charter. Legally, I think setting policy opens the county up to more lawsuits that they may lose wasting everyone’s time and money. Practically, policy should be set by the county legislative branch so that changes can be enacted easily if there are problems. And Philosophically (or by values), I believe that a Charter should be limited to the structure of government and the role of the Charter is to set the rules by which conflict, disagreement, and problems are solved and not be the place to solve those problems.
Resources:
Video from the League of Women Voters Event on the Clark County Charter
