Providence Charter Review Commission Records
1979-80
RG 209

During the late 1970s citizen interest in amending the city's charter gained momentum. The election of the city's first Republican mayor in more than three decades led to an effort by the Democrat controlled state legislature and City Council to reduce the new mayor's powers. The city's legislative charter was amended to deprive the mayor of the item veto and his control over the parks department was reduced. Other attempts were made to shift control of several municipal departments to City Council control. Nearly eighty changes had been made to the city's charter since its passage in 1940--none with the approval of the local electoral electorate.

Mayor Cianci joined a coalition of citizens led by The League of Women Voters and East Side physician Melvyn M. Gelch to call for a new home rule charter for the city of Providence. A successful signature drive resulted in the election of the Providence Charter Commission in October 1979. This nine-member commission chaired by Dr. Gelch conducted more than one hundred public hearings and meetings between November 1979 and September 1980 conducting a line-by-line review of the old charter and debating numerous proposed changes to the operation of its municipal government. The drafted home rule charter was presented to voters on November 4, 1980 and passed by a vote of 18,053 to 12,245. The charter became effective in January 1983. A core provision of the new document now allowed the city the ability to change the structure of its own government without General Assembly approval. In addition to strengthening the administrative power of the mayor, other key elements called for the reduction of the City Council to fifteen members (one from each ward), enhancing the fiscal powers of the council, and a reform of the city's personnel policies. The charter also formalized the establishment of the city's Division of Archives and History.

Scope and Content
This collection includes five boxes of meeting minutes, hearing transcripts, correspondence, as well as drafts and final copies of the city's Home Rule Charter. The records cover the period from November 1979 to October 1980.

Size: 6 linear feet