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It’s been more than 60 years since the Independence City Charter was first adopted and nearly 40 years since its citizens helped update the document, but city officials hope that changes soon.
“Most communities update it every five to seven years, so we are significantly behind,” Independence City Council Member Dr. Bridget McCandless said.
Byron Constance served as secretary for the Original Independence Charter Commission, which drafted the initial charter that was adopted in December 1961.
“I’ve always enjoyed making things,” said Constance, a retired lawyer who now spends his free time painting and sculpting. “I’ve made a lot of furniture. ... I got interested in artwork for some right-brain activity instead of the left-brain law practice for 50, 60 years.”
Now 97, Constance remains proud of the work — 60 pages of right-brain detail — that he helped the commission perform 63 years ago.
“I have the distinction of being the sole surviving member of the original 13-member charter commission,” Constance said. “... It was at a time of political turmoil in Independence and the charter resulted in the elimination of the old political spoils system of government, which had prevailed in Independence for many years.”
Instead of rampant cronyism and political favoritism, the charter created a council-city manager style of municipal government, which helped root out corruption.
After studying the issue for a year, the Independence City Council appointed an 11-member citizen panel to suggest changes to the charter.
“They spent an entire year going through every line and comma in there, looking at model cities to see what they should propose,” McCandless said.
The work was based off the National Civic League’s Model Charter and also examined city charters for peer communities — including Blue Springs, Kansas City and Lee’s Summit.
Voters in Independence will see five questions related to city charter changes on the ballot when they go to the polls on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
The charter has previously been amended in some capacity six times — 1972, 1978, 1985, 1987, 1999 and 2002 — but the last citizen’s charter review took place in 1984. Those changes were adopted in 1985.
Constance is among those who believe the charter could use further updating, so he’ll be voting yes to all five questions.
“Absolutely, it’s simple, plain common sense,” he said. “Things change. We have to meet those changes. We have to update from time-to-time.”
The proposed charter changes are designed to streamline and modernize city functions.
“First, we’re in arrears to a bunch of changes in state law, so the charter is not in agreement with state law and those have to be corrected,” McCandless said. “There are things like digital issues. According to the charter, everything has to be stored on paper instead of online.”
The new proposed charter would require citizens to vote if the city council wanted to sell a public utility — including the municipally owned and operated electric, water and sewer services.
The questions also would require the city council to adopt a Code of Ethics for city employees and officials and would remove redundancies already covered by city ordinance.
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