Charter Revision Commission May Propose Staggered Terms for Board of Selectmen

The Charter Revision Commission may recommend staggered terms for selectmen, but will first hold a second hearing Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m. in the Community Center.

At the meeting people can weigh in on proposed changes to the election process as well as the emergency authority section of the charter.

“We have put together drafts for two of the sections,” Commission Chairman Art Fournier Jr. said. “We want to see what the town has to say about it.”

The commission’s draft composition of election section 6.01 proposes that, at the town’s next regular election, the first selectman and two members of the Board of Selectmen would be elected for four-year terms, while the other two members would be elected to two-year terms. Starting with the regular election after that, terms would be four years for all members. 

Currently, the charter specifies that, beginning in the fall of 2011, all selectmen will be elected for concurrent four-year terms.

The most recent charter was adopted in November 2009 and went into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

The reason for appointing a new commission was some language in the current document that most say was a typographical error.

The current charter states, in part, “A political party may nominate and an Elector may vote for one (1) candidate for First Selectman and not more than two (2) other candidates for the Board of Selectmen.”

Since there are five members of the board, including the first selectman, that number left the potential for all those nominated to be automatically elected, selectmen said.

Selectmen said the second number always was three, but was changed to two when the last charter commission considered staggered terms.  Members decided not to go in that direction but forgot to change the number back to three, Selectman David Gilchrist Jr. has said at previous meetings. 

Under the changes proposed by the current commission, parties would be allowed to nominate and electors to vote for the same number of candidates as there are positions open.

The proposed change still allows a losing first selectman to be voted to the board, and still allows a majority party to hold up to four of the five seats on the board.

The other proposed charter change is in the emergency authority section 5.03. It would give selectmen the legal authority to give a third member of the board the power to declare a state of emergency, should the first selectman and deputy first selectman be unavailable.

Tuesday, the commission is expected to finalize its proposals for the board of selectmen.

Selectmen would have to approve the language in order for it to eventually get to voters at referendum, but cannot change it themselves.

They could reject the proposals and ask the commission to reconsider.

Officials are hoping that any referendum on charter changes could be held at the same time as a budget referendum, should there be one. 

The budget would go to referendum if fewer than 150 voters were present to vote at the annual budget meeting, or if the same number of qualified voters sign and meet petition requirements detailed in the current charter.

A referendum would be held seven to 14 days after the May 9 budget meeting.

To read more about the draft proposal from the current charter commission, see http://www.townofcantonct.org/controls/NewsFeed.aspx?FeedID=165

The current charter can be viewed here

Those who want more details of the current proposals and who voted for them can also access the commission’s minutes through the drop-down menu at http://www.townofcantonct.org/content/6662/default.aspx.