Roswell mayor puts brakes on charter changes

ROSWELL — After proposing a round of significant changes to the city charter to be voted on Monday night, Roswell Mayor Kurt Wilson says he is killing any immediate plans of revising the city charter.

At a committee meeting Tuesday night, Wilson apologized again for how the process was handled and said the council would not be considering the charter changes any time soon.

After facing backlash from residents over the weekend, Wilson asked council on Monday night to not consider the charter changes Monday and instead move the discussion to the next day’s committee meeting, where he later asked that the measure be taken off the table.

If you are not familiar with the proposed changes, you can catch up on them here.

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During public comment on Monday, several residents pointed out that the mayor and the majority of council members had only been in office for one month.

Roswell resident Tina Sloan reminded Wilson that by expanding the power of the mayor’s office, he could unwittingly give a future mayor he doesn’t agree with greater power. “Roswell is bigger than any one mayor and any one city council,” she said. “We do not want you to move forward with these changes.”

Former city councilman Jerry Orlans also spoke and encouraged the mayor to step back and see how the charter works before changing it.

Roswell resident Sarah Beeson said she was taken aback by the way the announcement of the changes was made. “This should be something that citizens, residents are given proper notification for, this comes out of a works session, it comes in the light of day.” Beeson recommended creating a charter commission made up of Roswell residents to evaluate changes to the charter.

After hearing from residents, Wilson apologized for the way notice was given about the charter changes.

“I did not sell this to you, I did not inform you, I did not make a business case and I did not make a gap analysis, and all those points are spot on and I failed on that miserably with you and you’re 100% correct,” Wilson said.