Charter Review Committee holds its first meeting

Nov 20, 2019

The members of the new Charter Review Committee met for the first time on Monday, and making the legal document easier to understand was high on the members’ list of priorities.

The Town Charter is a legal document that outlines the structure of Wareham’s government and outlines the powers and duties of various committees and officials.

Within the charter is a provision that requires the Board of Selectmen to appoint a committee to review the charter and submit recommendations, proposed amendments, and revisions to the charter every ten years. The Committee’s recommendations are then submitted to Town Meeting.

“The first priority should be the content, our second priority should be the format,” said committee member Jacqui Nichols. “But they go hand in hand.”

To make the Town Charter more user friendly, Superintendent of Schools and committee member Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood suggested adding a synopsis that would outline all the articles at the beginning of the document. 

“If I want to know about a certain article, I could just read that little synopsis and say, ‘Okay, I need to go there and look’ and it might help expedite people's experience,” said Shaver-Hood.

Before meeting again on Monday, Nov. 25, the committee members agreed to read through each section and make sure that “bylaws do not conflict in any way with the Charter,” said Whiteside. 

During the last Charter review in 2010, the committee advocated to overhaul the Board of Selectmen in favor of a mayor and town counsel.