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Date: 6/26/2023
LUDLOW — The town is looking for members to join a new government study committee to create a town charter.
The Board of Selectmen approved the committee to include up to 11 members with two of the members being Selectmen.
The Board of Selectmen agreed that the maximum number of applicants would be 11 depending on how many applications they receive.
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.
Strange said that he and Human Resources Director Carrie Ribeiro met with Michael Ward from the University of Massachusetts Boston Collins Center for Public Management to discuss a scope of services to guide the soon to be appointed government study committee.
“We talked about some of the logistical stuff and the big question is how many people. It really depends on how many applications we get. I think the consensus amongst the people were in that conversation was capping it at 11. Anymore than 11 and it gets really kind of unwieldly,” Strange added.
Strange also recommended that one to two Board of Selectmen members should also take part in the committee.
The approval of the funds will start a long process with the expert to guide the committee, according to Strange.
“We would like to in September with the goal of presenting a charter at the October Special Town Meeting in 2024. That would give us about 13 months,” he added.
Board of Selectmen Chair James Gennette recommended having a smaller committee depending on how many Board of Selectmen members took place in the committee.
He said, “If we were going to have two members from the Board of Selectmen on this committee, I would say go to 11, if we are going to have one, I would say go to nine. I like a smaller committee more than a larger committee. I think more people have a harder time coming to a decision.”
Strange added that the two Board of Selectmen members who are chosen should be ones who can stay for the whole process.
“October 2024 is when Town Meeting would vote, then it has to go to the state and there is actually a ballot question in March of 2025,” Strange said.
Selectman Bill Rosenblum agreed with the rest of the board that the number of members in the committee relies on how many applications they get.
He said, “This isn’t against anybody, it’s just seeing the amount of outside input from people generally is small where those and the amount of people actually run for positions in this town. I think we are going to end up with nine, two selectmen, seven citizens. I would make sure those citizens are diverse because you want to have input from different lines of work.”
Selectman Derek DeBarge wondered if the committee would be called a charter commission or government study committee.
The name of the committee is still a work in progress but Strange wants people to know the end goal of the committee.
He said, “When we send out the solicitation, we will do a press release. We want to make sure that people know that the end goal of this is to create a charter. The government study committee can be a little misleading. I use that terminology because that is what was in the financial management review.”
The Board of Selectmen decided to approve and name a new government restructuring committee with a cap of 11 residents and two Board of Selectmen members.