Preliminary Elections

Should local preliminary elections be discontinued? Currently the field of candidates is narrowed to 2x the amount of elected positions in a local preliminary election. Voters then decide upon the narrower group in a local election. This year there was no challenger in district councilor seat (except an opening seat), there was no contest in the school committee race at all, there was no need for a preliminary election for councilor at large (only ten candidates ran for five spots thus the group was already narrowed down), but there was a good number of mayoral candidates narrowed down to two final contenders.


Does the answer depend on how often we hold elections? The mayor serves a term of four years and councilors two years. Do you like the way it's working now or should it change? I believe I heard the Town Clerk indicate each election held costs about $20,000. Skipping a preliminary and going to terms of four years would save about $80,000 ($20,000 x 4).


Do the savings matter? Are we better served with more elections? More frequent elections? What do you think?

Mayoral leave of absence -- good idea or not?

The Weymouth Town Charter, Section 3-1(e) states, in part,

"No former mayor shall hold any compensated appointed town office or town employment until one year following the date on which such former mayor's town service has terminated. This provision shall not prevent a town officer or other town employee who has taken a leave of absence in order to serve as mayor from returning to the same office or other position of town employment held at the time such leave of absence commenced."

This issue has been raised as we transition from Weymouth's first mayor to our second mayor. As we review the charter, should this language remain or be changed?

Further, what does "other position of town employment...." mean? Can we avoid the possibility of future litigation and uncertainty by being clearer in this provision or do we want to change it altogether?