Knowledge Base

On August 1, 1904, the voters of the City of Rochester ratified a Home Rule Charter. That document as originally adopted contained 17 separate chapters and 314 consecutively numbered sections, and in its initial printed version ran almost 100 pages in length. In the 81 years since its adoption, the Charter has been modified on what may be described as a piecemeal rather than wholesale basis. Although the language of many of its sections have been amended, and a large number of them deleted, every proposal brought forth to amend the Charter by substituting in its place an entirely new document has met defeat when it was placed before the voters.