Similar to how the Constitution is the central governing document of the United States, the charter is the most important governing document of a municipality. Lakewood’s Third Amended Charter lays out how our local government is organized and how it functions.
Any change, or amendment, to Lakewood’s Charter must be approved by a majority of Lakewood voters during an election. Amendments to the Charter may be initiated directly by citizens or by a two-thirds vote of Council. Over the past century, the Charter has been amended many times. In 2017, Lakewood voters approved a comprehensive revision to the Charter and renamed it the Third Amended Charter. The work to perform this comprehensive revision was initiated by the 2014 Charter Review Commission.
Since 1985, Lakewood’s Charter has required that a Charter Review Commission be convened once every ten years to carefully review and to make recommendations about potential amendments to the charter. The Commission is a volunteer body comprised of citizens appointed by both Council and the Mayor.
The most recent Charter Review Commission was convened in 2024. Below are links to the Charter Review Commission’s Final Report, meeting minutes, agendas, and calendar.
For the recommendations of a Charter Review Commission to be enacted, two-thirds of Council must vote to place the recommendations on the ballot, and they must then be approved by a majority of voters. As of April 2026, the 2024 Charter Review Commission’s recommendations are pending before Council.
In November 2017, Lakewood voters overwhelmingly approved the proposed Third Amended Charter of the city, which had been drafted by the 2014 Charter Review Commission and later amended in 2019. Below are links to the Charter Review Commission’s report explaining its work updating the prior version of the charter, and a chart of additional changes approved by City Council before the Third Amended Charter was placed before the voters for approval.
