Derby voters Tuesday approved one of two questions about changing the city charter.
Question one, which asked voters for permission to make a number of relatively minor changes to the charter, was approved 2,262 to 1,249.
However, question two was rejected by a vote of 1,868 to 1,612.
Those are unofficial results distributed by the Derby Town Clerk.
Question two involved the “dual office holding” rule in Derby. City officials can’t hold two positions at once without getting a unanimous waiver from the Board of Aldermen.
Example — a city employee can run for the Board of Aldermen, but that person can’t take the seat unless all of his fellow Aldermen say so. A city employee who wants to coach a high school sport faces the same requirement.
Three of the nine members of the Derby Board of Aldermen also work for the city.
Several Aldermen wanted to delete the rule because they felt it had the potential to usurp the will of voters. But others, such as Second Ward Alderman Art Gerckens, urged voters to keep the rule in place. He said it was an important check within city government.
“This is great news for the city and Derby is the big winner tonight. The revisions in question 1 are good for the City. I was disappointed Question 2 made it to the ballot, but I’m glad the citizens voted it down,” Gerckens wrote in an email.
Voter turnout was about 70 percent as of 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Here are the other results from Derby:
President
Hillary Clinton – 2,326
Donald Trump – 2,650
Senate
U. S. Sen Richard Blumenthal – 3,117
Dan Carter – 1,755
Congress
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro – 3,060
Angel Cadena – 1,796
State Senate
State Sen. Joseph Crisco – 2,271
George Logan – 2,612
State Representative
State Rep. Linda Gentile – 847
Joseph Jaumann – 572
State Rep. Theresa Conroy – 313
Nicole Klarides-Ditria – 278
State Rep. Themis Klarides – 2,043
Aldon Hynes – 354
Registrar
Louise Pitney – 2,381
Rachel Nichols – 2,228
