WHEREAS, The South Orange Board of Trustees is considering amending the Village Charter through passage of Ordinance 2013-19; and

WHEREAS, this version of the Charter alters almost 150 years of history by replacing a VOLUNTEER Board of Trustees and Village President with a Council and Mayor which receive COMPENSATION; and

WHEREAS, at the December 9, 2013 Board of Trustees meeting, many residents spoke out against this proposal when it was about to be voted on; and

WHEREAS, Trustee Levison and Trustee Rosner publicly shared their opposition to this proposal and proposed an alternate version ("the Levison/Rosner Compromise") that will be voted on at the December 23, 2013 Board of Trustees Meeting; and

WHEREAS, the Levison/Rosner Compromise proposes revising the Village Charter to bring it in line with current state statutes and gender neutral language, but does NOT include changes to titles and does NOT add compensation ; and

WHEREAS, this is a fair and reasonable solution to update the Charter that satisifies a vast majority of the public; now

THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED, that the undersigned do hereby request that the South Orange Board of Trustees reject Ordinance 2013-19 and adopt the Levison/Rosner Compromise version of the Charter, retaining the distinguished titles of Board of Trustees/Village President as volunteer positions in South Orange, without any compensation.

P.S.  For further reasons why changing titles and providing compensation is wrong, please see this blog post.