To the editor:
As discussed in the last letter to the editor of the Aroostook Republican, the Citizens for Responsible City Management (CFRCM) successfully gathered enough signatures on a petition that would have put a charter amendment question to the voters in November. That charter amendment dealt with zero-based budgeting and putting that budget to the voters after it was completed. This petition was certified by the city clerk and then turned over to the Maine Municipal Association as well as city attorney, Rick Solman, for a legal opinion as to whether this action was an amendment or an actual revision of the city charter. Both the MMA and attorney Solman concurred that this was a revision to the charter. The city council, at their last meeting, also agreed that this was a revision. Had this been considered an amendment, the voters would have been able to decide at the November election if they wanted to adopt the zero-based budget format and vote on that budget. Since this is considered a revision to the charter, a new question must go to the voters. That question would be whether or not the citizens of Caribou want to establish a charter commission.
A charter commission is a group of citizens, elected and appointed, who will meet and decide whether revisions, additions, and/or deletions are needed to the existing Caribou city charter. Once changes, if any, are made to the charter, then those changes go to the voters for approval. Because of time constraints, the charter commission question will be posed to the voters in the June 2010 election.
The CFRCM feels that this is a win-win decision. The last time the city charter was revised was in 1967 when the town of Caribou became the city of Caribou. Caribou has seen a lot of changes in the last 42 years, its infrastructure being a major one. It’s time to take a long, hard look at the way this town is governed. Make no mistake, this is a monumental job, but one CFRCM is certainly willing to support. Surely there will be others within the community who are willing to do so as well.
As the weeks go by, CFRCM will be putting information on its Web site, caribouwatch.com, which is still under construction, as well as writing letters to the editor of the Republican to keep the public informed of the upcoming charter commission vote as well as other issues we will be discussing. While this is a delay as far as implementing our original petition, it gives the organization time to look at other important changes that may be included in the revision of the city charter and offer them up as suggestions.
The next CFCRM meeting will be held at the Van Buren Road Lodge on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend. We want to say a big thank you to the CCC&I for allowing us to use its conference room these last couple of months.
Stay tuned!
Citizens for Responsible City Management
