By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
Mayor Amy B. Sherburne wants to reappoint the Olean Charter Commission and have their charter revisions on the November 2027 election ballot.
The mayor was reminded on several occasions this year that the charter needed to be on the November ballot and contacted the Cattaraugus County Board of Elections to find out what the process was to get it on the ballot.
A public hearing on the charter revisions had been set for late December last year, but was canceled by the council who thought it was too close to Christmas. That was the last official action on the charter.
Former Mayor Bill Aiello, Charter Commission chairman James Griffin, Aldermen Sonya McCall and Vernon Robinson Jr., who were on the Charter Commission, spoke with the mayor or communicated with her office about the need to get the charter revisions on the ballot.
Still, it did not get on the ballot, as the Olean Star discovered late last month. No public hearing was ever scheduled and the charter revisions remain in limbo.
Sherburne told the Olean Star on Sept. 30 that she “reached out to remind everyone if there are dates or whatever needs to be done with that (charter), to please do it. From what I understand, this is not for the mayor to do. This is the Charter Commission along with the legislative body of the Council.”
Griffin said he received an email from Jennifer Fairbanks, the mayor’s secretary on Sept. 28, saying the mayor was asking “to see what is needed so we can get the Charter on the ballot in November.”
Griffin said he had emailed Sherburne in January to remind her about the charter.
Robinson, the former Common Council president who resigned in late July, emailed Sherburne on June 11. “I am writing to ask where we are with the public hearing for the Olean City Charter. We were supposed to have a hearing in December and that never happened. I am not certain of the process, but I am curious if this will be on the ballot for this year or is this too late?”
The Mayor’s Officer contacted the county Board of Elections to ask what date the charter question had to be submitted to get it on the November ballot. The answer was Aug. 3.
Marshall said after former Mayor Aiello appointed the commission, that was the end of his involvement. It is the commission’s responsibility to file it with the clerk’s office.
Sherburne declined to discuss the charter with the Olean Star on Tuesday, saying City Attorney Bridget Marshall was preparing a press release.
Marshall’s press release was posted on the city’s website on Thursday. The text of the city attorney’s press release follows:
“There are three ways the City can amend a charter. One of which is to form a charter commission.
“The intended benefits of such a commission are objectivity and a focus on the charter as a whole, rather than targeting selective bits and pieces for reform.
“The former administration appointed a charter commission to do this work; that is the end of the Mayor’s involvement and responsibility in that process.
“Once the commission is formed, they have two general election cycles to take their drafted amendments to the charter and put them on the ballot for public vote. The commission alone has the responsibility to file their amendments with the city clerk.
“Once amendments are filed, the city clerk’s responsibility is to send the amendments to the board of elections, a process which needs to be completed prior to the cutoff date in early August in order to be on the November ballot. “This was not done within the allotted time frame.
“Moving forward, the mayor would like to reappoint the commission in the hopes that their revisions will be on the ballot for public vote in 2027.”
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