Sulphur holds Home Rule Charter Commission meeting

Sulphur, LA (KPLC) - The city of Sulphur’s Home Rule Charter Commission held the second of three public meetings today.

The commission has been working since last December to address out-of-date wording and statutes and update the home rule charter which has not been updated since 1984.

“There have not been any major changes to the charter since 1984 and the changes that they’ve looked at are mainly language, technologies changed, things like that,” said Sulphur Mayor Mike Danahay. “It’s very basic in the changes, but it did need to be updated.”

For reference, the internet had just come into existence in 1983, the year prior to the charter being written. Many changes in the charter include updating old wording, such as replacing ‘fax’ with ‘email.’ But the charter also had to be updated to comply with state statutes.

“Some of it is because we’re in conflict with state statute now. The state statute has changed, and it’s never been changed in the charter. So that’s also something that had to be done,” said Danahay.

No one from the public was present to comment on the charter. This is why city officials remind residents that all city meetings are open to the public and notices of meetings are put on Facebook, the city’s website, and the newspaper.

However, the commission says there were no major changes to the charter.

“There’s nothing earth-shattering. We didn’t reinvent the wheel. It was a good document to begin with and we just made changes in order to make it a little bit better,” said Danny Dipetta, a Sulphur Home Rule Charter Commission chair member.

“Documents will be available to the public tomorrow in two forms: one with all the changes on it and one with red line and yellowed out. The proposed changes on that as well,” said Dipetta.

The charter commission will have one more meeting on Monday at 5:30 pm in case anyone from the public wishes to attend and comment.

“Thereafter, they’ll send it to the council. The council will vote to put it on the ballot that will take place in October, and so the people will have the opportunity to be able to vote on this, the charter changes,” said Danahay.

Residents who are interested in reading the home rule charter can find a copy here.

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