In Plymouth the Charter Review Committee has been meeting since July to evaluate the Charter with an eye toward updates or changes.
This group is appointed by the Town Moderator, one member of the Select Board and a member of the Committee of Precinct Chairs. This occurs every five years, as required by the Town Charter.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more….
David Golden Chairs the Charter Review Committee:
“We need to be looking at making improvements to our current form of government. There are some folks who were interested in looking at it as an opportunity to change the form of government, I put that to bed pretty quickly—brought in Matt Muratore, who confirmed that the general law only allows us to make tweaks. So, from my perspective, we’re looking to make this current form of government, our Town Meeting form of government, more efficient.”
And as for tweaking, an element of the charter that might be examined is the ruling regarding special elections. This is an issue that has become prominent since the recent Town Meeting vote in favor of banning nips. The Charter now states that if within 10 days of an affirmative vote of Town Meeting petitioners for a special election on the matter, submit signatures of 3% of registered voters, then a special election can be called. This has occurred. So will the Charter Review Committee examine that stipulation in the Charter?
“So, we are extremely aware of the discussions that are going on surrounding the election. But, there are a number of items that we’re looking at beyond just the referendum section. We met with the Town Moderator to speak about his position. We’ve invited folks from the Committee of Precinct Chairs to come and speak about Town Meeting and the COPC . We want to hear from the public.”
The Charter Review Committee meets at Town Hall on the 21st, at 6PM. In Plymouth, Bobbi Clark, WATD News.
