By Richard Price
Grafton News Editor –
The Charter Review Committee dropped their study of swapping Grafton’s current open town meeting format to a representative system.
The decision was announced at last Thursday’s meeting by the committee’s chair, Dennis Perron.
“After researching the law we found that an appointed Charter Review Committee cannot change the form of town government,” said Perron adding that it needs to be an elected charter committee of nine people.
Grafton holds their twice a year Town Meetings in an open format, where all registered voters are invited to decide on each warrant. But participation has declined since 1997, prompting the review committee to explore a representative form of government where town voters in each district elect a Town Meeting member to represent them. After the election, those members then conduct and vote on the rest of the Town Meeting’s business.
Every 10 years, the town reviews and recommends changes to its charter, a document that defines its seats of power and establishes duties and responsibilities. Currently, there are seven appointed charter committee members, which include Town Administrator Tim McInerney, former School Committee member Daryl Rynning, and Perron, a retired Grafton Police Officer. Now that the Open Town Meeting study is off the table, they are now focusing their efforts on whether to recommend to town voters to change the Planning Board seats and the Town Clerk position from elected to appointed. If any changes are advised, voters will decide in a future Town Meeting, likely next May.
So far, discussion about the future of the Planning Board has drawn the most heat, especially from its members. Some town officials, including McInerney and three Selectmen have called the Planning Board inflexible, arguing that the pace of economic development has slowed with cases often bouncing to conservation or zoning appeal officials. They have also argued that qualified candidates for Planning Board seats take a pass on running for election because they don’t want to go through the messy process or face an embarrassing loss.
Last Thursday, the Planning Board submitted a memo to the charter committee expressing their distaste for the possible change. “On Sept. 12 the Planning Board voted 4 to 0, with the Associate Member abstaining, to voice its opposition to the proposed change,” the letter read.
Planning Board Member Bob Hassinger said on Thursday the board was “doing pretty well” despite the length and complexity of pending projects but he also defended the election process saying the most difficult part wasn’t that hard — getting 50 certified signatures so the candidate can appear on the ballot.
Town Meeting Moderator Ray Meade said he was satisfied with the current system but advised the charter committee to consider recommending a technical review committee, a group of well rounded professionals with sound knowledge of different facets of a building project process, including fire safety, planning and engineering. He said that group could work out a proposal and then present it to the Planning Board for public review. “The cities and towns with the most success and the fastest process have a technical review committee,” he said.
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