A Reading commission is poised to vote on major ballot initiatives that could change the city\u2019s government, including adding a public health department.<\/p>\n
By Hanna Holthaus, Spotlight PA<\/p>\n
Pictured above: Front of City Hall. Photo courtesy of Susan Angstadt \/ For Spotlight PA<\/p>\n
This story was produced by\u00a0the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at\u00a0spotlightpa.org\/newsletters\/gooddayberks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reading residents have the rare chance to weigh in this week about possible major changes to local government, including the establishment of a public health department and removal of barriers to volunteer for board positions.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Charter Review Commission<\/a>\u00a0is scheduled to vote on multiple proposals to change the city\u2019s main governing document on Thursday. If the votes carry, the changes to the charter (which acts as the municipality\u2019s version of the Constitution) would not be guaranteed. Instead, voters will make the final determination in the May primary election.<\/p>\n The commission<\/a>\u00a0is the only unelected body with the authority to craft ballot amendments without going through a petition process. It has until the end of February to consider ideas. Through the commission\u2019s work,\u00a0voters previously<\/a>\u00a0approved local term limits and eliminated residency requirements for high-ranking employees.<\/p>\n City officials initially failed to convene the commission amid confusion about the mandated timeline and who was responsible for bringing the group together,\u00a0Spotlight PA previously reported<\/a>. The city must organize the commission every three to five years for a six-month period, and failure to do so leaves what gets on the ballot to the discretion of elected officials.<\/p>\n Some proposed questions aim to settle or clarify internal City Hall matters, while others could have a direct impact on resident services. The current proposals would ask voters if they support the following:<\/p>\n The creation of a Department of Public Health with the authority to collaborate with community partners. It would be fully operational within two years of voter approval.To allow individuals with outstanding parking tickets of $300 or less to be appointed to city boards, commissions, or authorities.To merge the Board of Ethics and Charter Board into one body.To disallow a member of City Council from serving as a board member of any municipal authority.To add \u201cmayor shall appoint one chief of police,\u201d which would codify the current practice that the commission believes is not clear in the charter.To increase the city clerk\u2019s term from two years to five years.To disallow any member of an authority, board, or commission from serving more than three terms consecutively.To disallow any active city employee from being appointed or serving on an authority, board, or commission.To allow appointees to serve concurrently on more than one authority, board, or commission.To realign the boundaries of City Council districts every 10 years based on the most recent U.S. census.<\/p>\n The commission is expected to debate changes to these proposals on Thursday before its vote. It may also discuss ideas to require an annual forensic audit of city finances, expand the charter\u2019s preamble to more closely resemble the recently passed\u00a0welcoming ordinance<\/a>, and address environmental concerns.<\/p>\n The most significant of the proposals so far \u2014 namely, the public health department and the various changes to boards and commissions \u2014 come after much discussion in other city and county organizations.<\/p>\n The city has an existing\u00a0Board of Health<\/a>, but the charter commission\u2019s idea varies in scope: The health department would help coordinate services among county nonprofits. Berks County commissioners\u00a0paused similar efforts early last year<\/a>\u00a0due to impending budget concerns.<\/p>\n The charter commission\u2019s confirmed ballot questions do not need the approval of the mayor\u2019s office or City Council \u2014 and neither have weighed in on the possibilities at commission meetings. Jack Gombach, the city\u2019s managing director, told Spotlight PA he needed more information on how a city health department would function and its goals, especially in light of growing\u00a0projected budget deficits<\/a>\u00a0over the next few years. He also questioned whether the charter was the most appropriate avenue for establishing a new department.<\/p>\n \u201cI think like all communities, we\u2019re struggling post-COVID of how do we address public health from a policy perspective,\u201d Gombach said. \u201cThe other side to that is that this very realistically will increase costs for the city, both from a legacy cost and head count, to also programming.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Reading councilors and administration officials have lamented\u00a0the struggle to attract volunteers<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0various boards and commissions<\/a>. Many have lacked a voting quorum for months at a time, halting their duties. The commission proposals aim to give more options for recruiting residents, while also removing City Council members from the boards. This could include expanding eligibility for people with outstanding parking tickets, as well as water, electric, or other bills.<\/p>\n Members of the public can comment on the questions and offer new ideas during the meeting at 5:30 p.m. in City Council chambers at City Hall. Residents can also\u00a0contact the members<\/a>\u00a0of the commission to complete a survey of what they feel is important for the city to address.<\/p>\n BEFORE YOU GO\u2026\u00a0If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at\u00a0spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by\u00a0foundations and readers like you<\/a>\u00a0who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reading commission is poised to vote on major ballot initiatives that could change the city\u2019s government, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-88426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-reading-city","9":"tag-reading-city-headlines","10":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}