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11/11/2020 11:00 PMThe Board of Selectmen (BOS) officially approved a charge for a Charter Review Commission, a process that began more than a year ago, and will give the town a chance to make changes to its charter—changes that could range from relatively small clarifications in language to significant alterations to its fundamental structure.
Currently, the BOS is conducting interviews to fill the seven-member body, which will aim to finish its work by the end of 2021. Commission members will be named on Monday, Dec. 14 following these interviews.
Back in September, the BOS had discussed naming a commission this month, though First Selectman Peggy Lyons also emphasized there was no particular rush to start the work.
“I think we all want to do it, get it done right, and be thoughtful,” Lyons said in September.
The charter review process is governed and defined relatively narrowly by state statute and among other things, requires at least three public hearings and a review and final approval by the BOS, with any proposed changes going to the voters at referendum.
If a question is posed at a special referendum, at least 15 percent of total eligible voters must vote in favor of the changes, according to state statute, meaning that a simple majority approval is not enough—the town must elicit sufficient turnout if it wants the changes to stick.
A charge for a charter review commission was approved by former first selectman Tom Banisch more than a year ago. No members were ever appointed to that body, and when Lyons won the election in November 2019, she re-imagined the charter review as a two-part process, allowing a more informal group, the Ad Hoc Government Study Committee, to look more specifically at Madison’s fundamental government structure before the standard, structured review began.
That committee originally was meant to finish its work in May, but was disrupted by the pandemic and struggled to reach a consensus. It presented its final report to the BOS early this fall, offering a number of suggestions for changes including lengthening selectmen terms and tweaking town meeting requirements without endorsing any one course of action over another.
Madison’s charter requires that the BOS create a charter review commission once every decade, though that deadline is not for another five years. Proposed changes by another charter review commission were soundly rejected by voters in 2015.
The commission is required to hold at least one public hearing “prior to the beginning of any substantive work on such charter, charter amendments, or home rule ordinance amendments” and an additional hearing after the first draft of any proposed changes.
State statute also seeks to give the commission some degree of independence. Although the BOS can offer recommendations, members “may also consider other items for inclusion in the proposed charter, other changes to the charter...and such other items as it deems desirable or necessary.”
The BOS must certify the commission’s final report, which must be submitted within 16 months by statute, and can add its own modifications to it. If all these proposed changes to the charter are approved by a majority vote of the BOS, the board then has another 15 months to put the question to voters.
The town still has a timeline that would put a question on the November 2021 ballot, though in past conversations, the BOS has indicated that sometime in 2022 is more likely.
As far as what the Charter Review Commission will consider, Lyons has said she sees the Government Study Committee’s work as “jumping off point”—though again, the Charter Review Commission members are not required to consider any particular aspect of the charter or limit themselves to any specific issues.
Among the issues the Government Study Committee identified were a lack of participation in town meetings, continuity through first selectman administrations, and oversight of local government. Solutions floated in their report included everything from switching to a town manager form of government, increasing the length of first selectman terms to four years, or creating an ethics commission.
Anyone interested in applying to serve on the Charter Review Commission can do so at madisonct.org. Only registered Madison voters can serve on town boards and commissions.