Norwich - The City Council named a seven-member charter revision commission Monday that includes a retired city school principal, a former Groton town clerk, local businessmen and the former president of the Norwich Community Development Corp. board.

The commission members will be: retired Norwich principal Janis Sawicki, former Groton Town Clerk Debra Dickey, former NCDC President Kent Baker, Norwich landlord Les King, former alderwoman Linda Becker, former Pfizer Inc. executive and current Redevelopment Agency member Leland Loose and local youth sports coach and retired banker Michael Gualtieri.

Despite a 5-2 Democratic majority on the new City Council, the new commission has four Republicans and three Democrats.

The former City Council in November voted to establish a charter revision commission and assigned the group to study several specific issues, including a potentially controversial idea of creating a single mill rate for the entire city and considering four-year staggered terms for aldermen instead of two-year terms.

The center city is served by a paid fire department, and property owners there pay a higher tax rate to cover the costs. Property owners in the five outlying volunteer fire districts pay only a small amount to cover volunteer firefighter pensions, while some costs of all the departments are funneled through the general budget.

Another potentially controversial item is a suggestion that the commission propose changing the city bonding limit without needing a referendum.

The council cannot bond for more than $800,000 without a referendum. Wording in the resolution calls for the commission to consider "raising council bonding threshold to a percent of the adopted city budget."

State statutes allow a charter revision commission up to 18 months to report recommendations to the City Council.

c.bessette@theday.com