After eight months of work, a commission set up to review Richmond’s constitution or City Charter has stopped short of recommending a major overhaul of the city’s form of government.
While not one of the commission’s official recommendations, the change back to a council-manager form of government could put the mayor on City Council and reduce its membership to seven.
Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. He is the author, most recently, of What Then Must We Do? (Chelsea Green).
The commission has released a 42-page outline that sheds light on its two frontrunner recommendations – one calling to remove three city council seats and add the mayor to the council.