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Date: 5/23/2023
LUDLOW — The town approved an article at Town Meeting on May 8 to raise and appropriate $25,000 to hire a municipal government expert to support the town’s goal of creating a new town charter.
The town is looking to transition to a different form of government that relies less on Town Meeting and possibly move to a more mayor form of government.
Town Administrator Marc Strange provided a quick summary of the process to create a new town charter.
He said that the Board of Selectmen will solicit applications for the charter committee, and they will be responsible for creating the charter and revising the bylaws.
“Like many of us, we are not experts in charter commissions, we are not experts in revising bylaws so this money will pay for an expert — probably an attorney — to guide the committee through the process. If and when that committee produces a final product, the charter committee and revised bylaws will come before Town Meeting. If Town Meeting approves the charter and bylaws, it then goes to the state for approval. If the state approves that eventually we have our new form of government,” Strange said.
The number of members of the committee has yet to be determined.
The approval of the funds will start a 12- to 18-month process with the expert to guide the committee, according to Strange.
A resident at Town Meeting asked what the end goal of the article was.
Selectman Tony Goncalves explained, “We believe that it is time to bring something else forward weather it’s a charter commission or type of charter commission that the law allows for the process. Times are changing and this form of government isn’t efficient. We don’t know, that’s what the charter commission would eventually figure out or have an opinion that would come to Town Meeting.”
Strange said that he and Human Resources Director Carrie Ribeiro will meet with Michael Ward from the UMass Boston Collins Center for public management to discuss a scope of services to guide the soon to be appointed government study committee.
Strange added that one of the Collins Center’s core competences is charter change assistance and government study committee facilitation.
Selectman Derek DeBarge said, “I think it shows that if the population of this town would see that the process works, I think they would endorse us in changing this government even more so. I am grateful that we were able to pass the article to pay a consultant to go through the charter commission change.”