SULPHUR — Tab Finchum, a member of the city of Sulphur Home Rule Charter Commission, on Monday presented the City Council with recommended changes to the charter. Over the past year, Finchum said, the commission has reviewed the charter, section by section.

“We were given a broad mandate … so we opened the doors to all ideas,” he said. “These are just our suggestions. It’s just kind of a working copy for the City Council or for public input.”

Finchum said many of the changes would align the charter with state law or remedy redundancies. But, he said, “three big changes … will probably take the most discussion”:

• A proposed term limit of two four-year terms for council members.

• A recommendation to revisit language in the charter on council compensation. Finchum said council pay was incorrectly addressed in the charter as a fixed amount, requiring a vote on the whole charter to change. The commission recommends compensation be set by ordinance. 

“The council is one of the lowest paid in the state. And the compensation has not been addressed since 1991,” Finchum said. “So, there needs to be a mechanism for the compensation that would more accurately reflect the effort they are putting in.”

• A proposed change in the form of government from the current mayor-council set-up to one similar to the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and School Board with a city manager-council set-up. 

“Running the city is a big task,” Finchum said. “There are 150 employees and a $20 million-plus budget.”

He said 53 percent of municipalities in the United States operate with the manager-council model. If the plan is adopted, Sulphur would be the first municipality in the state to be governed this way.

Finchum said the arrangement would allow for continuity of institutional knowledge, because the manager wouldn’t be an elected position.

Council Chairman Randy Favre said the list “was not set in stone” and that public forums will be held in each district to inform residents of any proposed changes to the charter, last updated in 2006, and to allow for input.

The council has an Aug. 24 deadline to submit propositions for a November vote. 

For more information on the commission’s work, call City Hall at 527-4500.