Roanoke City Council is considering the home rule charter review commission’s recommendations to modify the city’s charter—including a recommendation related to how often the mayor would vote—and whether to bring those before voters in an election.
Although the amendments will not be on the ballot until at least 2023, the charter was reviewed by a nine-member committee, which is required at least every two years.
One of the major changes proposed by the commission includes giving the mayor the ability to vote on every agenda item, versus just voting to break a tie, as is currently the case.
“It just made sense for the mayor to vote when there wasn’t really a real reason that we didn’t have the mayor vote when we started the charter,” said Council Member Holly Gray-Moore, who chaired the review commission. “As we’re growing and Roanoke is kind of changing, it just seemed like it made sense ... they’re putting all the same time in.”
