Revitalizing local democracy through charter reform By William C. Shelton Last Thursday the Charter Review Committee conducted its first meeting. Its purpose is to design a new governing document – a new government, really – that will enable the City to be responsive to residents and to effectively meet the challenges of this historical moment. Such an effort is overdue by over a century. Our current charter dates to 1899. It mandates two Fence Viewers, a Wood and Bark Measurer, and a Grain Weigher. It also invests overwhelming authority to govern in the mayor. Just twelve years after the current charter’s adoption the city’s leaders recognized their error. The Board of Aldermen approved a new charter that specified a commission form of government, a forerunner of today’s council/manager form. The Mayor signed it, but it languished and then died in the Legislature in 1914.