The City Council will review the revised City Charter amendments that reflect their discussion and consensus provided at the February 8th Special Session.

It is expected that the City Council will finalize the proposed City Charter amendments at the March 11th Study Session. As discussed at the February 8th Special Session, it is currently the intent of the City Council to place the proposed amendments before the qualified, registered voters of Independence at the August 6th, 2024 election. First reading of the ordinance calling for this election would occur at the April 1, 2024 Regular Meeting with second reading occurring at the April 15th, 2024 Regular Meeting.

On April 18th, 2022, the City Council approved Ordinance 19321, forming a seven-member Charter Review Commission with members individually appointed by one member each of the City Council.  On May 23rd, 2022, the City Council rescinded this ordinance and directed the City Manager to research best practices for establishing a City Charter Review Commission and to prepare a resolution for consideration by the City Council based on these findings.

On August 1st, 2022 the City Council approved Resolution 6846, which established a nine-member City Charter Review Commission. On October 17th, 2022 the City Council approved Resolution 6867 to clarify appointments made by the Mayor as well as when the City Council would approve members of the City Charter Review Commission.

On December 5th, 2022 the City Council approved Resolution 6877 which confirmed the appointments of the City Charter Review Committee members.

Between January and November 2023, the City Charter Review Commission spent nearly 600 person hours reviewing the City Charter and making recommendations for modernization of the Independence City Charter. Charter Commission Chairwoman Jackie Sommer presented the final recommendations to the City Council at the January 8th, 2024 Study Session. The Commission also presented a list of topics that they did not include in their Charter amendment recommendations, but that they felt were worthy of separate recommendations to the City Council for consideration.

On February 8th, 2024 the City Council convened for a Special Session to discuss the recommendations made by the Charter Review Commission. Also discussed at this meeting were recommendations made by Councilmembers Fears and McCandless who reviewed the comprehensive list of recommendations made by the Charter Review Commission on behalf of the full City Council.