Williamstown Charter Review Committee Looking at Wide Range of Issues
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Members of the Charter Review Committee on Thursday reiterated that some of the issues it is examining may best be addressed outside the town's charter.
"The big choice is: Does it need to be in the charter or the bylaws?" Chair Andy Hogeland said. "It can also go into policies and procedures."
Not for the first time since it first convened in September, the ad hoc committee talked about other mechanisms for changing the operation of town government or codifying existing operations without amendments to the 1956 charter.
Which is not to say that the committee is not leaning toward making specific recommendations to amend the foundational document of town government.
On Thursday, both Hogeland and Jeff Strait pointed to some specific elements of the charter that need to be updated: its reference to a town school committee now that the body has been replaced by a regional school district and restriction on some individuals holding multiple town offices, particularly in light of contemporary "quasi" town offices like School Committee and the Hoosac Water Quality District.
"It's not clear [in 2023] what is a 'town office,'" Hogeland said.
In addition to dealing with outdated terminology, the Charter Review Committee is looking at a couple of dozen more substantive questions, ranging from the implementation of term limits for local government posts to utilizing ranked choice voting in town elections.
Not all the questions on the table would need to be addressed in the charter.
Anne Skinner said she prefers to keep the charter – the municipal equivalent of a constitution – as general as possible.
Other members agreed. Hogeland said he prefers to address issues through town bylaws or even through the policies and procedures of various boards and committees.
The latter option brings its own concerns, the committee noted.
"Policies need to be documented," Mary Kennedy said. "They tend to go away when board compositions change or the town manager changes."
Hogeland agreed.
"Someone set a policy 20 years ago, and today no one knows what it was," he said. "We operate on habit and custom, not quite knowing where the habit or custom came from."
Much of Thursday's meeting concerned outreach to the people whose lives are dictated by those "habits and customs."
The committee finalized a list of questions that it wants to send out to current members of boards and committees in town.
Those committee members will be asked questions like, "What would improve your committee's effectiveness?" and "Would you recommend a term limit?"
The Charter Review Committee also wants input from town employees and town residents in general. And on Thursday, it discussed how to accomplish outreach to both groups.
Town Manager Bob Menicocci told the committee that in December he asked his department heads to read through the town charter with an eye toward what concerns they might have with the document. He said he would follow up with his subordinates this month and report their responses back to the committee.
Hogeland told his colleagues that if they want to put together a townwide survey that could be mailed out to constituents, they need to finalize a list of questions by the beginning of March in order to include it in the next townwide mailing, the spring tax bill.
Hogeland noted that other town surveys have used that mechanism in the past, and that delivering questions through the mail has resulted in strong response rates without the added expense of a separate mailing.
Strait noted that inclusion with the tax bill would miss residents who rent their homes, but Menicocci said Town Hall does have a list of all rental addresses and could send a separate letter to those residences addressed to "occupant."
Although the committee is planning to send hard copies of the survey to residents to raise awareness of the questions, it also plans an online response mechanism to make it easier to gather data.
Tags: charter review,
