South Hadley Charter Commission supports switch to mayor
Thursday, December 11, 2008
By SANDRA E. CONSTANTINE
sconstantine@repub.com

SOUTH HADLEY - The Charter Commission has completed a preliminary report on its plan to switch the town to a mayoral form of government that includes leaving the status of appointed and elected officials as is, having the mayor serve on the School Committee and creating a seven-member council.

"Anyone who is currently elected will remain elected and anyone currently appointed will remain appointed," Commission Chairwoman Constance A. Clancy said Tuesday. "We don't want to make too many changes. We want to streamline the town with a new form of government, but we do not want to make changes across the board."

There is some sentiment in town that residents rejected a previous charter commission's recommendation in 2000 to adopt the mayoral form of government because it proposed changing a number of elected positions to appointed ones. In April of that year, residents voted 2,248 to 1,865 to reject a charter change.

The preliminary plan has been sent on to the state Attorney General's office to be checked for legal form.
South Hadley currently has a Town Meeting form of government with elected members along with a Selectboard that directs a town administrator.

Clancy said the preliminary report will be published, probably by the middle of next week, in a local newspaper. The next step will be a public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 15 in the Selectboard's meeting room in Town Hall.

Clancy said the document is subject to change, depending on the public input gathered at that hearing. The final product will go before voters in the municipal election on April 6.

Commissioners have agreed to recommend forming a seven-member council. One councilor would be elected from each of the town's five precincts and two would be elected at large.

Earlier, commissioners had favored having nine councilors, but reduced that number after residents said the council would be too large, Clancy said.

Commissioners would like the mayor to be a member of the School Committee, but not necessarily serve as its chair. That change would expand the school board to six members.

"Making the mayor part of the School Committee is the predominant way communities go to the mayoral form," Clancy said.

The commission also recommended that all terms of office be for two years and that the first election under a charter change take place in November with successive elections held also in November.

Every household in town will be mailed a copy of the commission's final report sometime before the April 6 municipal election, Clancy said.