Kevin McCarty, a Sacramento City Council member, is responding to the Feb. 12 editorial, "Council and mayor must end their war." It said, "The likelihood of yet more division is one of many reasons to be concerned about the elected charter reform commission."

The Bee editorial urged Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and members of the City Council to put their differences aside and work "together for the good of the city."

I couldn't agree more.

That's why I offered an initiative to move forward the debate on constructive changes to the city's government structure.

The city charter serves as Sacramento's constitution. It hasn't been reviewed and updated since 1921.

State law provides a citizen-driven process to update the city charter by forming a charter review commission.

First, Sacramento residents would vote on whether they want a charter review commission. If approved, 15 citizens – elected by the people – would review how the city is governed and draft a plan for any changes to the government structure. They would seek extensive citizen input. And the voters would have final say on whether the plan is to be adopted.

My proposal to explore the prospects for putting the charter review commission on the ballot received a unanimous vote of approval from the City Council. Even the mayor was in support of taking that action. When the final vote on the commission came before the council, the measure was approved by a vote of 7-2.

The commission proposal got a clear majority vote because it has been successfully used to update city charters elsewhere in California. One of the best examples was Los Angeles, where charter revisions were approved by a landslide vote in 1997.

Los Angeles voters got enhanced ethics requirements, more sunshine in government operations, campaign finance reform, neighborhood councils, term limits and a new mayor-council structure. Fourteen years later, the city government structure is functioning well. Fresno is another city that has been functioning well with an updated city charter since 1992.

The charter review commission is a citizen-driven process that was endorsed and embraced by the Sacramento Superior Court in a 2010 ruling against the mayor's first strong-mayor plan.

When we update our city's general plan or our regional metropolitan transportation plan, we engage the community extensively from the ground up. Why wouldn't we do that when revising our city's constitution?

In District 6, which I represent, I recently sent a survey/mailer to 8,500 households asking questions about a variety of city issues – taxes, utilities, charter, reform, a new arena, green waste and Mayor Johnson's proposal for a strong mayor. I've already received 1,500 responses – an astounding 18 percent return.

By a 2-to-1 ratio, city residents opposed the strong-mayor approach. And by a 2-to-1 ratio, they supported the charter review commission approach. That is about the same ratio that I've found when I've been making door-to-door visits in my district.

Mayor Johnson's government overhaul measure was a top-down approach, written in a backroom by his political power brokers. That's why it has been rejected by a court and on three different votes by the City Council.

I support an effort that is a bottom-up approach – developed and written in a citizen-driven process and put on the ballot so that voters can have the final say.

The charter review commission process is the only option for an open and transparent process for making decisions on how the city is governed. It is a perfect example of representative democracy in action.

Sacramento's elected leaders have a great tradition of engaging our citizens. And our citizens have shown us a great interest in being engaged.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Kevin McCarty, a Sacramento City Council member, is responding to the Feb. 12 editorial, "Council and mayor must end their war." It said, "The likelihood of yet more division is one of many reasons to be concerned about the elected charter reform commission."

• Read more articles by Kevin McCarty