Home rule

Providence School Board President Ty'Relle Stephens is fighting an effort to oust him after Vice President Anjel Newmann reportedly raised concerns about board officer terms with state Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. Stephens, 23 and the youngest board president in district history, accused Infante-Green of improperly interfering in local governance, citing her repeated calls and involvement, and argued she relied on an outdated 1890s statute despite Providence's Home Rule Charter authority. He also claimed three senior district leaders who left for RIDE positions had their departures wrongly blamed on him. The dispute, which escalated into a contentious September meeting, comes months after Providence regained local control of its schools in July; the board met again this week to continue discussing his removal.

Illinois lawmakers are considering legislation that would let Chicago voters create a city charter, potentially reshaping the balance of power at City Hall. State Rep. Kam Buckner's Municipal Home Rule Charter Act (HB 3656) would allow any Illinois city with more than 500,000 residents — effectively just Chicago — to adopt its own governing constitution. A legislative hearing on the proposal was held Tuesday.

The bill would create a process for voters to elect a 10-member commission tasked with drafting a city charter, which could address issues such as term limits, public access to financial records, ward map drawing, and the mayor's executive authority over the City Council. Any resulting charter would ultimately require voter approval. Buckner says the proposal is not aimed at any specific mayor or council and is instead meant to give Chicagoans direct input into their local government's structure. He expects the bill to come before the General Assembly in January.

Greenville City Council voted 5-1 on Sept. 29 to adopt nonpartisan primaries as the city's new election method, ending decades of partisan "D" and "R" labels on local ballots. Under the new system, all candidates will run in a single primary each June, with the top two advancing to the November general election. Council member Lillian Brock Flemming cast the lone dissenting vote in protest, while Wil Brasington recused himself due to his mayoral campaign.

The switch was mandated by a state law passed this year abolishing partisan primaries for cities with populations over 39,000, affecting only Greenville and Florence. Many council members said they weren't opposed to nonpartisan elections in principle but resented the decision being made in Columbia rather than locally, citing South Carolina's home-rule tradition. Greenville had considered the same change in 2015 before public backlash reversed it. The new rules take effect as the city heads toward its first open mayoral race in 32 years, with observers split on whether nonpartisan contests will favor well-funded candidates or broaden the field of contenders.

The East Baton Rouge Metro Council on Wednesday declined to move forward with a measure creating a commission to study deconsolidating Baton Rouge's city and parish governments. Council member Darryl Hurst, the measure's author, withdrew it from the agenda before a vote, saying his goal was to start a dialogue rather than force an immediate decision.

Most council members agreed the topic deserves discussion but argued Hurst's proposal, a Home Rule Charter Commission, was the wrong mechanism. Under state law such a commission can only draft and submit a charter to voters, removing council oversight, and would have required a plan within 180 days, which critics called premature. Some cited unresolved litigation and the complexity of untangling decades of shared city-parish finances as reasons to wait.

Interest in deconsolidation has grown since St. George incorporated as the parish's fifth city, diverting an estimated $40 million to $50 million in tax revenue from the consolidated government. Hurst said he plans to revise the proposal with colleagues' input and bring it back later.