WESTBROOK – So far, the Westbrook Charter Commission, which is charged with updating the city’s constitution for the first time in more than a century, is on the right track to making city government smoother, more logical and more modern.

That was the consensus at a workshop Monday night between the City Council and the commission, part of the commission’s ongoing process to come up with a draft of the new city charter.

The workshop, held just before the council’s meeting, gave the panel a chance to weigh in on issues such as term limits, the municipal officers body and an appointed versus elected city clerk.

There is no official date on how old the charter is, according to City Clerk Lynda Adams, but some of the city’s laws date back to 1889. While many sections of the city charter have been changed over the years, Adams said, there has not been a full review of the entire charter since 1907.

Some past piecemeal changes to the charter have been the subject of confusion, and even lawsuits. A 1969 change, which modernized the hiring and firing practices of the city’s fire chief, failed to repeal older charter language that gave the mayor the power to remove the chief by declining reappointment at the end of the chief’s one-year term.

Mayor Colleen Hilton used the latter provision to remove former Fire Chief Daniel Brock in 2010, a move that led to Brock suing the city for wrongful termination. The case was settled prior to going to trial for $320,000, but not before U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby called the failure to delete the older language “a legislative oversight.”

Maine law does not require that a community review its charter, but once it elects to do so, which Westbrook did last fall, there is a timeline by which certain steps must be taken. The commission met with the council in July to ask for an extension on a November deadline for filing its final draft of the charter for council review.

The council agreed, and the commission now has until June 2. In the meantime, said Drew Gattine, a member of the commission, a rough draft of the new charter should be ready in about two months. At that time, Gattine said, the commission plans to hold a series of public hearings to get residents’ input on what should be changed.

Gattine opened the discussion by going through a list highlighting some of the more significant changes posed for the new charter. Among them, the commission is suggesting eliminating the Municipal Officers governing body. The charter mandates the officers handle some routine business decisions, such as the granting of liquor license renewals.

Commission members have indicated in the past that the Municipal Officers provision is confusing. The body consists of all seven city councilors plus the mayor, and meetings of the Municipal Officers take place right before a meeting of the City Council. The appearance, critics charge, is of two virtually identical governing bodies calling a meeting to order twice, complete with the banging of a gavel and a roll call.

Gattine, in describing the item, noted that the provision is an old idea that most communities no longer use, and called it “something that is particular to Westbrook.”

City Councilor Michael Foley said he also favored eliminating the provision, since it took him some time as a citizen, before being elected to the council, to fully understand the separation of the two bodies.

Foley also agreed with another major change proposed by the commission, to make City Council and school committee member terms three years long.

“It seems like it’s a good happy medium,” he said.

Right now, councilors serve for two years, and school committee members serve for four years. City Council President Brendan Rielly, who favored the change, said a two-year term for the council is particularly unfair to someone who is new to the group.

“There’s a tremendous amount to learn, and you spend two years learning it, and you’re running again,” Rielly said.

Rielly said he also supported the commission’s proposal to stagger elections for City Council. Right now, all seven city councilors and the mayor are elected in the same year.

That setup, Rielly said, leaves voters open to removing and replacing the entire municipal body at once, what Rielly called a “throw the bums out” measure. While that may feel good at the time, Rielly said, it leaves open the chance that one council could be replaced by a new council with no governing experience, which could make for a jarring experience for the city.

Another proposed change that got the council’s attention was making the city clerk’s job an appointed position, not elected. Right now, voters elect the clerk, and this fall, City Clerk Lynda Adams is running against Sue Rossignol, who sits on the charter commission and served as the city’s finance director until Hilton eliminated her position in 2010.

Gattine noted that electing its clerk is also a unique practice for Westbrook, and Councilor Mike Sanphy agreed the city needed to make the change.

“I think we’re one of the few communities that has an elected clerk, and I think that’s archaic,” Sanphy said.

Hilton did not address specific inconsistencies in the charter, but noted the overall language of the charter itself, which she said was old-fashioned, confusing, and in places “sexist.”

Gattine said the commission would continue to meet monthly at the Public Safety Building on Main Street, and that those meetings are open to the public, in addition to the public hearings that are likely to be scheduled for early 2012.