In January, a bipartisan Charter Revision Commission was formed and tasked with suggesting changes to the town’s charter, the document the spells out how town government works. In August, the commission turned over two separate proposed charters.

One charter called for the town to keep its’ current form of government, albeit with major tweaks. The second charter called for the town to adopt a town manager form of government in which a professional town manager acts as the town’s chief executive and takes on many of the duties currently handled by the first selectman. The manager would be overseen by an elected seven-member town council, who are able to hire or fire the town manager.

In September, the BOS approved of the potential changes and put questions pertaining to both charters on the November ballot.

This move followed unsuccessful efforts to enact a similar charter change at referendum in 2017 and earlier proposals that did not make it to the referendum stage.

On election day 2018, voters chose to switch to the town manager form of government by a margin of 4,317 to 1,540. Due to a stipulation that the majority of total voters had to vote “Yes,” not simply a majority of votes, it was not immediately clear if the change had passed on election night and a recount was planned for Nov. 10. However, on the evening of Nov. 9, the town announced that town attorney John Bennet and Registrar of Voters June Hansen had certified that question three had passed after computing the algorithm per state statute and no recount was needed.

The new charter goes into effect in November 2019.