Town Council Pushes Off Vote on Charter Changes

Kensington residents told the Town Council Monday that 15 days won't be enough time for the public to react to proposed ordinances before they are enacted into law. The council voted unanimously to keep the public record open for another two weeks to gather more comments before voting at its next meeting, March 14.

Proposed changes to the Town Charter would shorten the time the Council can act on ordinances from 28 to 15 days. The proposed amendments would allow a public hearing to be scheduled 15 days after an ordinance is introduced; the Council could act after that.

"I just feel a 15-day notice can be a very short time for people to see what's in that (proposal)," said Julie O'Malley, one of the residents who spoke at Monday's public hearing.

A summary of the proposal would be posted at Town Hall and published in a newspaper and, if time permits, the Town Journal.

Council Member Lydia Sullivan said residents who are out of town for two weeks could find themselves without any opportunity to comment on a proposed ordinance.

"I'd like to see 45 days" between introducing and acting on a proposal, she said.

Jane Plank, Kensington's former mayer, argued that 15 days doesn't give citzens enough time to absorb and react to a proposal, particularly if they miss its publication in a newspaper or don't physically go to Town Hall to see what's posted.

"I don't think 28 days is an unreasonable time," she said. "I'm not going to come up here every week and read the front door."

But another resident, Tracey Furman, argued that the time period won't make much difference because citizens who want to be engaged in public affairs will make it a point to find out what the Council is doing. Others won't get involved no matter how long the Council waits to act on a proposal.

"I'm concerned people think that more time will engage people and that's not necessarily the case," she said.

Council Member Sean McMullen said the change to 15 days won't have much practical effect because the Council rarely rushes to approve any new ordinances or amendments anyway.

"I just don't see that this is going to change our way of operating," he said.

An ordinance proposed at a regular Council meeting couldn't be voted on at the next meeting because the Council meets every two weeks, one-day shy of the 15-day requirement. So action couldn't come until the next meeting, at the earliest.

In other action Monday night, the Council voted to send a resolution to the County Planning Board to endorse its continued work on splitting up a Commercial/Residential (CR) zoning designation to smaller, sub-designations such as CR-Neighborhood and CR-Town, each with different requirements.