Article 25 asks whether the town will vote to petition the General Court for legislation to accept the Charter Review Committee's Proposed Town Charter.  This document, available here (pdf), replaces Town Meeting and a five-member, volunteer board of selectmen with an elected mayor and town council. If this article passes, the Proposed Town Charter will go to the General Court for approval.  If approved, the document will then have to be approved again by Wareham voters in a special election.

The article is likely to cause debate.

The Charter Review Committee submitted a non-binding referendum to the April 6 Ballot asking whether the "current form of government is working in the best interests of the town."

The resulting 49-percent "yes" to 51-percent "no" vote is difficult to interpret.  With other election results clearly signaling dissatisfaction with incumbents, it is likely that the question was interpreted by some as a referendum on those incumbents.

And, with the source of the question being those who favor a mayor, some "yes" votes may have come from people who oppose a mayor but would like to see other modifications in Wareham's current form of government.

Charter Review Committee Chairman Alan Slavin said that the results offered "no clear answer, yes or no," especially considering what he estimated as a 4-point margin of error in the results.

He and other committee members have repeatedly expressed surprise and disappointment that more people have not attended the committee's presentation and may thus be unaware of the proposal.