Norwich — With a vote along party lines, the City Council on Monday defeated an effort to form a charter revision commission that would have considered topics such as creation of a fire commission, four-year council terms and even a review of the city’s ethics rules.

Mayor Peter Nystrom had made creation of a charter revision commission a campaign promise. Although the resolution on Monday’s agenda passed 4-3, creation of a charter revision commission needed at least a two-thirds majority or 5-2 vote for approval, so the measure failed.

The council’s three Democrats, Aldermen Joseph DeLucia, Samuel Browning and Stephanie Burnham, called for a brief recess in the council meeting to caucus in private prior to discussion on the motion. When the meeting resumed, the three voted against proposed amendments to the resolution and to the final resolution.

DeLucia called the city charter “the constitution of the city,” and as such, amending it should be done only as a last resort after other measures for improving city functions are tried. DeLucia also said creating a charter commission only should be done after a special meeting of the entire City Council to discuss the specific charges the commission should take up.

Burnham said the council held two day-long strategic planning sessions last winter and the issues now being raised for the charter commission were never discussed in those sessions.

“I would have liked to see a healthy discussion by this whole body,” Burnham said.

Browning specifically spoke against exploring the possibility of four-year staggered terms for council members instead of the current two-year terms. He said in recent years, there was an alderman who ended up not making it most meetings because of work commitments and decided not to run for a second term. Another moved out of town near the end of his two-year term. Browning said having four-year terms would just lead to more special elections mid-term for aldermen who resign for various reasons.

Nystrom, who does have a four-year term, countered that the city charter often becomes an obstacle when the City Council tries to work on long-term strategic plans, and some of the issues proposed for the charter commission would have addressed that. He also said City Councils are hampered in their efforts to enact long-term plans, because the council only has control over its two-year tenure.

Along with the four-year council terms, aldermen had proposed asking a charter commission to considering establishing two fire commissions, one to govern the city’s paid fire district and one for the five volunteer fire districts. Alderwoman Stacy Gould added an item to have the commission examine the city’s current ethics rules.

The commission also would have been asked to consider removing zoning authority from the City Council and creating a more common Planning and Zoning Commission. Past charter revision commissions have considered that move, but city councils at the time objected to the change, preferring to keep zoning authority.

c.bessette@theday.com