Whitehall City Council is expected to decide July 10 which charter-amendment proposals will be presented to voters Nov. 6.
Four separate ordinances proposing amendments to the city charter were introduced June 5 and were expected to receive a second reading June 19 at City Council.
A third and final reading is scheduled at 7 p.m. July 10 at Whitehall City Hall, 360 S. Yearling Road.
Council members are expected to act to either approve or reject the placement of the proposed charter amendments, council President Jim Graham said.
Two of the ordinances concern the same subject -- term limits -- and only one can be approved, Graham said.
One ordinance would ask voters to abolish term limits altogether; the other would amend the charter to change the existing two-term limit to three terms for the mayor, auditor, city attorney and members of council.
"You can't have both, so council will need to decide (by July 10) which one," Graham said.
Council also could choose, Graham said, to reject both and simply leave the current two-term limit in place.
Term limits were instituted in 1993 for the mayor and council members via a pair of charter amendments after voters' approval.
The measures passed shortly after the death of former Whitehall Mayor John Bishop, who died in office after serving as mayor from 1972-93.
Another charter amendment would create a gender-neutral charter by removing masculine pronouns and references found throughout.
The final proposed amendment changes the line of succession for the mayor.
Currently, if the mayor leaves office for any reason, the council president is next in line, followed by the service director.
Because the service director is neither elected nor required to live in Whitehall, the charter review commission recommended that the service director be removed from the line of succession, Graham said.
Instead, a member of city council would be second in line to succeed the mayor.
A five-member charter review commission met four times between Feb. 26 and April 9 to review the 86-section city charter and make recommendations to City Council.
Council members have the final determination to accept any, all or none of the commission's recommendations -- or to amend or create their own -- for placement on the ballot.
The charter requires a five-member commission to convene at least once every five years to review the city charter.
In 2013, the last time the charter was reviewed, the commission suggested an amendment that term limits for mayor, City Council and other elected offices be abolished. The measure failed, with 62.5 percent of those who voted rejecting the issue, and the two-term limit remained in force.
The filing deadline is Aug. 8 at the Franklin County Board of Elections for any issue to appear on the Nov. 6 general-election ballot.
kcorvo@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekCorvo