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Date: 1/9/2024
LUDLOW — Patricia Lloyd from the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management met with the Charter Committee at its Jan. 4 meeting to discuss different forms of government to which Ludlow could change.
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.
Ludlow currently has a Representative Town Meeting, a town administrator, Board of Selectmen and multiple committees and boards.
The committee has begun researching two main forms of government: town manager/town council and mayor/town council.
Lloyd gave a presentation on each of the two forms of governments with strengths and weaknesses.
According to the presentation, in a town manager/town council form of government, the town manager is the chief executive officer who is appointed by the town council typically for three-year terms and is responsible for the day-to-day operations, implementing polices and prepares and submits the budget.
The council, usually consisting of nine to 13 members, typically appoints the town manager, town auditor and town clerk.
They also approve or reject the budget, approve all appropriations, adopt general and zoning bylaws and approve all land transactions.
In a mayoral/town council form of government, the mayor is the chief executive officer usually elected for two- or four-year terms and is responsible for the day-to-day operations, appoints most, if not all, city employees and volunteer boards and prepares and submits the budget to council.
The council is the legislative body of the city and usually consists of nine to 15 members for two year terms who have limited appointment power. The council is sometimes a mix between councilors elected at-large and those elected by ward. The council also approves the budget and all appropriations, adopts general and zoning bylaws and approves land transactions.
The difference between the two forms of governments that the committee discussed is if they want more elected people to have more of the power or one elected person to have most of the power.
Selectman and Charter Committee member Bill Rosenblum added, “The Collins Center has said it really isn’t cookie cutter, it’s an a la carte to where we can pull things. Say we want manager/council but there are still aspects that someone might be more inclined to think mayor but take some of those aspects of the mayoral form and implement them into a manager/council form.”
Charter Committee Chair Marissa Riberio Dahan said that at the next Charter Committee meeting they are hoping to meet with two more mayors from other towns.
At its Dec. 7 meeting, the Charter Committee already met with a mayor, town administrator and town manager from different municipalities to gather information about how their government runs.
After that meeting, Dahan added she would like the committee to choose which government path for the town so it can start drafting a charter.
“At that point I would like to hopefully be at a point where we can make a decision and start to move forward on working on details. We probably would be looking to take a vote on the form I would think the first meeting in February,” Dahan said.
The Charter Committee meets on the first and third Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. in the Board of Selectmen room at Town Hall.
According to Selectman and Charter Committee member Derek DeBarge, the goal of the committee is to have a suggested new charter available for the Town Meeting in October.
From there, if approved, it must go to the state Legislature and depending on the length of that process, there would be a ballot question in March 2025.