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EXPLANATORY STATEMENT (500 word maximum) The Woodburn Charter sets out the organizational structure, powers, functions, and procedures of the city government. The Oregon Constitution grants "the legal voters of every city and town [the] power to enact and amend their municipal charter." The Woodburn City Charter was last reviewed and amended in 1982. The Woodburn City Council convened a Charter Review Committee to provide input on proposed changes and updates for the Charter. The Committee was comprised of six members, including current and past elected officials of the City and the Executive Director for the Woodburn Area Chamber of Commerce. The Committee met several times in noticed public meetings to develop its recommendations. As part of its work, the Committee studied other city charters, as well as model charters from the League of Oregon Cities and the National Civic League. The Charter Review Committee recommended that the foundational pieces of Woodburn’s current city government remain the same; keeping the same form of government and number of city councilors, maintaining the councilor ward system, and making no change in how laws are passed. If passed, the proposed Charter amendments would generally include: • Changing the City Administrator title to City Manager (Section 21 and references throughout the Charter); • Modifying certain powers and duties allocated between the City Manager, Mayor, and City Council, including granting the City Manager the exclusive duty of appointing, supervising, and removing all City employees, except the municipal judge and city attorney, and distinguishing the Manager’s administrative role from the Mayor’s role as the political head of the City (Sections 20 and 21); • Giving the City Council authority to waive the City Manager residency requirement (Section 21); • Granting appointment and removal authority of city employees to the Manager Pro Tem (Section 21); • Changing the election of the Council President from the first meeting in December to the first meeting in January following the biennial election (Section 18); • Adding contingency language for emergencies that prevent the Council from holding its regular meeting (Section 13); • Adding a restriction that to qualify for elected office, such person cannot be a spouse or immediate family member of a regular full-time City employee (Section 12); • Updating and modernizing text throughout the Charter to closely mirror the current League of Oregon Cities Model Charter (Sections 3, 8, 13, 15, 25, 30, 31, 32, 38, 40); • Removing or modifying sections in the Charter that are not enforceable or are covered by state statute, including state public records and meetings, elections, and budget law (Section 13, 21, 38, 40); and ---PAGE BREAK--- • Removing gender specific, exclusive, or binary pronouns in the Charter and when possible, replacing the pronoun with the title or position from the same sentence or section (Sections 12, 13, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 31, and 33). If the ballot measure does not pass, Woodburn would retain its current city charter. Full text of the proposed Woodburn Charter amendment is on file at Woodburn City Hall and is available at: