The year 2011 was quite historic for Oneonta, regarding its city charter and the organization of city government. Some may not realize that these changes were a long time in the making, and the success achieved in 2011 was the third attempt to make major changes in the charter.
Apparently not much attention was paid to the charter before 1947. According to The Oneonta Star of Wednesday, Aug. 6, 1947, "After two years of painstaking search, Oneonta's city charter has at last been tracked down, isolated and identified, Mayor A.F. Carson told the Common council last night.
"The feat was accomplished by the charter revision commission headed by Louis M. Baker, who did the major portion of the work himself."
Mayor Carson said Baker was the only person who had the complete charter in one piece in one spot.
Together it filled four large loose-leaf volumes. It was ready to be typed and copied so revisions could be made, a task completed in 1948.
While nothing major came from those revisions, it was in May 1960 when Oneonta first began considering a change in city government. Mayor James N. Georgeson and a few aldermen from Common Council made a trip to Albany to discuss possible changes in the charter and the form of government, with the State Department of Audit and Control.
A Charter Revision Committee was formed that year, headed by Francis Feeney, Second Ward alderman. Feeney and other Common Council members initially supported a "strong mayor" type of government.
Mayor Georgeson had gone on record as supporting what was the current form of government.
The charter review was completed by January 1961. The strong mayor form had been altered a bit to a city manager-council type of government by Feeney and the Charter Revision Committee. A public meeting on May 23 drew only seven interested taxpayers, with the rest in attendance being past and present city officials.
The proposed changes never went to a public vote that year. On June 12, Mayor Georgeson said that Oneonta "is not ready for city management." The Charter Revision Committee said it would continue to work on the charter but couldn't promise when it would be ready.
The charter plan was finally presented Tuesday, March 6, 1962, that continued to promote a city manager, and a mayor to become a voting member of Common Council.
The Revision Committee staged a vigorous public education campaign that autumn, as a referendum would be put on the November ballot. Albert S. Nader, a new mayor who had taken office in 1962, was joined in opposition to changes in the charter by former mayors Alexander Carson, Roger Hughes and James Georgeson.
The revised city charter went down in defeat Tuesday, Nov. 6, by a 3-2 margin at the polls.
Interestingly, 840 people somehow totally ignored the proposal on the ballot. The new charter lost by 643 votes.
Although nothing drastic came from this round, some revisions were made to the charter in 1964, according to The Daily Star of June 1, 2011.
Once again, the charter came up for a public vote in November 1982. A revision commission had been working for the previous 18 months on changes. There was no city manager proposed this time.
The mayor would have been removed from the Common Council and taken a stronger role in the city government, directing department heads and preparing budgets.
The proposal went to down to defeat again, but by a narrow margin.
While 3,500 Oneonta voters cast their ballots in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 2, only 53 percent voted on the charter.
Joseph P. Molinari Jr., chairman of the revision committee, attributed the low vote to a lack of public interest.
"It's a very uninteresting subject," Molinari said. "It's not something that reaches out and grabs you." While Mayor James F. Lettis had supported the revision, former mayors Nader, Hughes and Georgeson had opposed it.
The charter remained unchanged until another commission was appointed by Mayor John Nader in 2007, beginning the effort toward the successful charter revision in 2011.
This weekend: The newspaper business was anything but easy in Oneonta in 1862.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
Two charter revision failures preceded the 2011 success
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
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Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
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- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
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I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
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- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
