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Vote ‘No’

The ballot for the upcoming election will have two charter revision questions in addition to the various elected office holder votes. One of the questions asks us to change the term of the First Selectperson and the other four Selectpersons from two to four years. That might be fine if the First Selectperson only chaired meetings and issued an occasional policy statement. In Madison, however, the First Selectperson is the chief executive and the chief administrative officer of the town – a full time job demanding management and leadership skills.

Do you know of any significant organization where the CEO gets a four-year contract with no review? I can’t think of any, and if I got a proxy statement from some company I owned stock in asking for that, I would be outraged! A CEO needs to be held accountable for their actions or inactions.

One of the reasons for this request is to avoid the trouble of campaigning every two years. In my opinion, if a potential First Selectperson doesn’t want to address the citizens of Madison every two years, they should find a different occupation. Vote “no“ on this question.

On a different note, I am in favor of the other charter revision question which updates a number of details. Good work by the revision committee.

Fillmore McPherson

Madison