A city charter commission is there to ensure that ballot initiatives and such follow the established constitution or 'charter' that was drawn up when the city was created. Less like a city council council and more like a group of lawyers making sure bills will pass the legal smell test.

And I doubt half of them knew this would happen. Kinda hard to know what's going to happen when you can't be bothered to even read the law... even when that is basically your job.