A Charter Commission: Now What?

A Charter Commission:  Now What?

Amherst4All worked hard and obtained the requisite number of signatures on their petition to place a question on the spring ballot , whether or not the Town should create a Charter Commission to “study” town government and recommend changes.  I put “study” in scare quotes because, although Amherst4All changed their language from “change” to “study” in mid-stream, their objective has always been clear:  to replace our Town Meeting/Select Board form of government with a mayor/city council form.  I think this is a very bad idea, and I shall be explaining why over the coming weeks.  I shall also suggest some changes in our governance that preserve town meeting, strengthen the executive functions and provide clearer checks and balances.  If a Charter Commission is elected, I hope that it will consider these as well as other ideas.  Much will depend on their choice of a consultant and the imagination and flexibility he/she brings.  The past two charter commissions selected consultants who had unfortunate blinders.  The first charter commission struggled against the consultant; the second didn’t bother.

Of course, everything depends upon who is elected to the commission, and this depends upon who runs.  Bizarrely, the state requires that the candidates for commissioners be on the same ballot that decides whether or not to create a commission.  Whether I vote to create a charter commission depends entirely on the slate of candidates on that ballot.  If the candidates represent a diversity of points of view about town governance, I will vote in favor of creating a commission.

I will do so with fear and trepidation, though.  This vote will be the first indication of the role that money will play in the politics of the future in Amherst.  The moneyed and commercial interests in town are mostly in support of doing away with town meeting and will doubtless provide support for candidates who share this viewpoint.  Whether pro-town meeting candidates will choose to run and can match these resources remains to be seen. But the time is now; candidates can take out papers from the Town Clerk’s office and must get fifty validated signatures over the next six or seven weeks.  Amherst4All originally said that they were going to run a slate of candidates, so I expect they will do so and provide the resources to run a vigorous campaign.  To my knowledge, supporters of town meeting do not have a similarly well-organized effort.

What they do have is a better message, although they have not in the past delivered it very effectively.  In my prior posts I have presented my take on that message.  In future posts I will explain why I think a mayor/council form of government is both inappropriate for Amherst and inherently more susceptible to abuse than the town meeting/select board form that has served us well for over seventy-five years.