In Plymouth, the Charter Review Committee and the Select Board met in joint session last month on the 19th. Several issues were raised—some that the Charter Review Committee can address and one that it cannot…
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more….
And that issue is the size of Town Meeting, both the Town Manager and Selectman Charlie Bletzer talked about Town Meeting being too large. Town Manager Derek Brindisi:
“Relative to Selectman Bletzer’s concerns, he’s not wrong. We have 162 Town Meeting members and we probably average 30 to 40 absentees. So maybe 162 Town Meeting members are too much.”
David Golden Chairs the Charter Review Committee:
“The way that you change the size of the legislative body is through a charter commission, which is an elected body, whereas we’re appointed. That’s the only body that can adjust the size of Town Meeting.”
The Town Manager, who has a background in public health, having served as Director of Public Health for the City of Worcester, also talked about the Board of Health.
“The Board of Health has strong statutory authority and the way the Charter is written, it just mentions that we have a Board of Health but it doesn’t detail their roles and responsibilities and their authority. I think in order to avoid future conflict with the Board of Health, I think we need to flush that out a little bit.”
The Charter calls for an appointed Board of Health. Golden, currently serves on that Board:
“The Charter is silent on the authority that the Board of Health holds here in town and in that situation, Mass. General Law rules. We’re looking at everything—every single line of the Charter is being combed through, so the Board of Health is something we’ll definitely look at.”
The Charter Review Committee meets next at 6PM at Town Hall on Tuesday. January 2nd. In Plymouth, Bobbi Clark, WATD News.
