Aurora voters faced 13 charter amendments in the Nov. 5 election and approved all but one of them: a provision that would have extended the time frame for convening a commission to review the city’s master plan from five to 10 years.
It is typical for cities with charters to appoint a commission to periodically review and update the charter: Aurora’s charter stipulates that it be done every five years. After council and the mayor approve the recommendations, the proposed changes are submitted to city voters.
Aurora Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin said the single measure that failed may reflect the general public’s lack of awareness as to what goes into a master plan review.
The process is intense, time consuming and “not inexpensive,” she said, as it involves hiring and paying an expert consultant. The city’s planning, zoning and building department leaders supported the 10-year time span as being more reasonable than five, she noted.
City voters did approve a charter measure that matched the qualification for mayor to those of Aurora council members.
The charter had stipulated that potential candidates for mayor had to have lived in Aurora for a year prior to filing their petitions for nomination and had to live in the city as long as they were in office. The new language states that the mayor, as do council members, not only must be “bona fide” city residents, but must also have been qualified electors and registered to vote in Aurora for a year prior to filing.
Aurora’s mayor since 2014, Womer Benjamin has delivered 11 State of the City Addresses and convened three charter review commissions. She said prior commissions had more serious matters to deal with, leaving the current one to mostly handle what she characterized as “small changes,” such as cleaning up language and eliminating inconsistencies.
Though some residents complained to her about having to fill in bubbles next to 13 proposed charter amendments, “I think the charter review commission did a good job, and they are the ones that made the recommendations to the mayor and council,” she said.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.