Charter Revision Committee

Presentation of Final Report and Amendments

The Chevy Chase Village Charter Revision Committee was formed by the Village’s Board of Managers on December 8, 2014, following up on a recommendation by the report of the Village Board Task Force on Committees.

Comprehensive Overhaul

The need for a comprehensive overhaul of the Village Charter has long been recognized by prior Boards and the current Board and Legal Counsel. The charge to the Charter Revision Committee was to comprehensively review the Village’s Charter and recommend to the Board revisions to update and streamline the Charter.

Charter Background

By way of background, a Charter is in essence the constitution of a municipality and sets the framework of the government. The current Village Charter was enacted many years ago and has been revised multiple times over the years.

As a result, the current Charter is poorly organized, and contains outdated and unclear wording, multiple inconsistencies, and certain provisions that would be better located in the ordinances. Further, the Charter fails to reflect the Village’s Council / Manager form of government and does not adequately define the roles of various Village personnel.

Review & Conclusions

When reviewing the Charters from other municipalities prior to its initial meeting, Committee members identified other aspects of the Village’s governance that could be reviewed to determine if changes should be made. These included the number of Board Members and the name of the governing body (Board of Managers vs. Council).

The Committee formally met on four occasions: January 29, April 23, May 27, and July 6, 2015. The Committee was joined by Village Counsel at all except the initial meeting.