Saline voters will be asked to amend the city charter

Voters in the city of Saline will see two proposals on their ballots during the upcoming Presidential Primary vote.

Both proposals will ask voters to amend the city's Charter.

The Saline City Council approved two resolutions at its Dec. 4 meeting to see the proposals placed on the ballot for the Feb. 27 vote. The Sun Times News followed up with city manager Colleen O’Toole to ask about these.

O’Toole explained them this way:

“Saline Proposal #1 seeks to change the City Charter to align with state statutes on public posting requirements. This also includes allowing for City Council meeting synopsis to be posted on our website instead of in a local newspaper.”

“Saline Proposal #2 seeks to change the language around when we host the first regular City Council meeting in January of each year. Right now, there is the potential for that meeting to conflict with a federal holiday if it falls on the first Monday in January. Historically when the first or third Monday are otherwise recognized as federal holidays, we shift our Council schedule to the second or fourth Monday of the month. It also seeks to amend the language around how special meetings are called to align with state regulations and removes what our legal counsel has identified as conflicting language around whether a Council member can be removed for excess absences.”

O’Toole said, “Both Charter amendments are largely associated with operational changes, cleaning up language to align with gender neutral references, and comply with state statue."

City Council did approve the language of both Charter amendment proposals and it will now go to voters in the February election.