Copper Country — Citizens of the City of Houghton voted in favor of amending the city charter Tuesday through four ballot proposals.

Proposal No. 1 amended gender specific terminology to be replaced with gender neutral terms, and was passed by a vote of 581 to 212. Houghton City Clerk Amy Zawada explained the charter will no longer refer to council members, city manager and clerk as “him,” but rather a gender neutral term or “he or she.”

“It was just kind of an archaic way to refer to the city manager and everything as ‘he,'” she said. “So it was just making everything more fair and gender neutral across the board.”

Proposal No. 2 prohibits private gain by public officials and employees, specify events which create potential conflicts of interest and prohibits city officials or employee

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