Posted on August 13, 2015 at 10:33 AM by mrace mrace
Your Charter Review Commission has continued to gather information about our town
government and about how towns with similar size and similar economies in our area are
governed. The Commission has now met with all elected town boards (except the School
Committee – scheduled for August 3), department heads, and those appointed boards which
elected to participate. Members on the Commission have met with representatives of the
governments of Wilbraham, Longmeadow, Easthampton, Palmer, Ludlow, Sturbridge and South
Hadley.
The Commission has hired the Collins Center at UMass Boston as a consultant to guide us
through the process of drafting a charter. The Commission met with them on July 23 and began
discussing the legislative branch of town government. The Town has only three choices for this
branch, under state law. These are: Open Town Meeting; Representative Town Meeting; and,
Town Council. Most of our discussion to date has centered on the relative merits of open town
meeting vs. a town council. No decisions on what form the Commission will recommend have
yet been made.
The meeting schedule for the next month is: Monday, August 3, with the school committee;
Thursday, August 6; and Thursday, August 20. All regular meetings are held in the media room
of the Council on Aging on North Main Street, beginning at 6:30 pm. All meetings are open to
the public.