Weymouth Charter Blog

The Review Committee Has Met But This Isn't the Committee's Blog

2009-08-20T08:25:00.004-04:00

The Charter Review Committee has met for the first time. I'll look for the minutes of the meeting to be available after they are approved.

My hope in writing this blog is to invite discussions on the Charter by residents and interested people. If you have an idea that you'd like to share, please post it here. I'm not on the Charter Review Committee, but as an elected town councilor, I wanted to add another channel for online discussion. The more discussions that take place on this topic, the better.

Feel free to chime in, but my goal is to look at ideas that can benefit the charter and the town and not to get into personalities or characterizations of individuals. In addition, I hope to post various parts of the Charter so discusssion can take place on the Charter as it currently exists. Of course, I have some ideas about these and areas that may be ripe for change, but in the end, I'm only one resident with some ideas.

In many ways this blog is an experiment and your comments will tell if was a useful one. I welcome and invite your ideas...

Charter Review Is About to Begin

2009-05-26T17:36:00.001-04:00

Weymouth's Charter is about to be reviewed by a committee chosen by the mayor and council president. I'm not sure where they are in the selection process, but if you are interested in serving on the committee, then you should let them know.

Even if you are not interested in serving on the recommending committee, what issues would you like to see examined by the committee. What areas of the charter do you like and want to see left alone? What don't you like, and why?

In about a year, I expect the council will take up the committee's recommendations and decide what to do with them. Under Weymouth's Charter, this review takes place every ten years. Let me know your thoughts as I suspect the debate will begin to pick up once the committee is chosen, announced, and begins meeting.

Preliminary Elections

2008-05-09T17:36:00.000-04:00

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?

2008-01-03T02:52:00.000-05:00

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?

Term Lengths?

2007-12-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

One issue that will likely arise during Weymouth's Charter review is term lengths.

How long shoud the mayor's term be?

School Committee?

District Councilors?

At-large Councilors?

Currently the entire council is elected every two years. Is this a good idea or should it be staggered?

Weymouth Charter Review Blog

2007-11-03T08:45:00.000-04:00

Weymouth's "Charter" is the document that defines the Town of Weymouth's government -- sort of a local constitution (note: Weymouth is legally considered a city but its official name remains the "Town of Weymouth.")

In 1999, Weymouth elected our first mayor under the newly adopted city form of government. During the past two elections there have been varied discussions abouth Weymouth's upcoming Charter Review. The Charter requires the formation of a committee to review changes in 2009. (See Section 8-5).

The full Charter can be found at http://www.weymouth.ma.us/council/charter.pdf

This blog is an attempt to begin discussing ideas about our Charter and its review. Feel free to offer your two cents at any time. The purpose of the blog is to discuss issues, however, not personalities. I won't moderate ideas, but I will use my discretion in personal attacks or issues that stray off topic.