Natick Special Town Meeting #1 (see warrant and meeting recording) focused solely on updates to the town’s charter, aka, its constitution, and Natick’s legislative body finished its job in one night on April 30. Not so fast though—Spring Annual Town Meeting continued on May 2 (see recording), and there’s still work to do there.
Special Town Meeting #1 was the culmination of months of work by Natick’s moderator-appointed Charter & By-Law Review Committee, created in fall of 2022 to perform a required 5-year review of the town’s charter and bylaws. As the committee progressed with its work, it received legal advice and was encouraged to pursue a special legislative act (i.e., a state law) to make all proposed charter changes. The committee got a chunk of its proposed changes approved at Fall Annual Town Meeting last year, and its aim during this Special Town Meeting #1 was to wrap up the rest.
The work at this Special Town Meeting #1 boiled down to two articles, the first which included simply sharing the committee’s report and seeking an extension to do its bylaw work. The second included a dozen motions, and these took up the bulk of the May 2 meeting. Motions under the articles were vetted by a special counsel as well as the town’s counsel.
Charter & By-Law Review Committee Secretary Christine Weithman did much of presenting about the articles and motions during the meeting. This started with a brief report from the committee, and a likely timeline for implementing the changes. The goal would be to file the legislative act by year-end, allowing the state legislature to act on it in 2025. Once signed by the governor, the act could be voted on by Natick’s electorate in late 2025 or early 2026.
Town Meeting approved the reading of the report, as well as the committee’s extension beyond fall of 2024 to review and propose any bylaw changes. This extended work would require up to $75,000 in additional legal costs, and Town Meeting OK’d this appropriation from free cash (a motion to delay the weighing of this motion failed to pass).
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Article 2: Moderator sidekick & more
It was then on to Article 2 and its batch of motions.
Motion 2 called for creation of the deputy moderator position, appointed by the moderator, to take the moderator’s place “temporarily” if that overseer of Town Meeting was unable to perform their duties, or needed to recuse themself. The Town Clerk has previously filled the void, but when Natick recently switched from an elected to appointed Town Clerk position, it changed its charter language such that Town Meeting would need to elect a replacement moderator.
This motion sparked spirited discussion that lasted about 50 minutes. Concerns were raised about what is meant by “temporary” [not sure it was every really defined, in terms of actual maximum length, as some Town Meetings appeared to be asking].
The question was also raised about whether having a moderator appoint a sidekick that would work alongside the moderator would give that appointee a leg up if the moderator stepped down and a new moderator needed to be elected. Some wondered whether it might be better to have the public elect the deputy moderator. Town Meeting member Elise Gorseth said she liked the idea of having a deputy moderator but would rather the position be elected to reflect “the will of the town.”
Weithman said there was consideration of whether the position should be elected by voters or by Town Meeting, but that the committee settled on having the position appointed. This would be a person who would need to work alongside the moderator, so that the deputy could step in on the fly and support the efficient running of Town Meeting. The Charter & By-Law Review Committee’s Paul Griesmer said one consideration in supporting the appointment approach is that the moderator and deputy get along, something that might not happen if the deputy were elected.
It”s possible down the road that bylaws could be introduced to define who (say people in certain positions in town government) might or might not be eligible to serve as a deputy moderator. Clarification on qualifications required could also be put into bylaws.
Town Meeting member Bill Gath asked about how much the moderator gets paid: “Nothing,” replied Moderator Frank Foss. And the deputy moderator? “Twice as much as nothing,” Foss quipped. Gath’s point in asking the question was that it’s tough enough to get anyone to run for moderator, as illustrated by there having been very few of them in recent memory, and that getting people to run for deputy moderator as an elected position would probably be similarly challenging. “You couldn’t get anybody to fill it half of the time,” he said.
Town Meeting approved the motion 87-31-1.
Motion 3 involved the process of suspending or removing the town manager/administrator (allowing actions to be taken based on a majority vote). One Town Meeting member was against the motion, feeling it should be required that a performance review has been conducted before the Select Board can get rid of the town manager/administrator. Another Town Meeting member trying to make sense of the motion used the example of if the town manager/administrator was an ax murderer—would the Select Board be able to ditch the person if it hadn’t done a performance review in a timely manner? (Town Administrator Jamie Errickson, for the record, asserted he is not an ax murderer.)
Town Meeting approved the motion 105-10-2.
Motion 4, which easily passed, sought to change the title of “town administrator” to “town manager” since the role has already been empowered with town manager responsibilities.
Other motions that passed addressed issues such as reorganization of town agencies, clarifying that the Select Board is an agency, shifting certain job descriptions from the charter to bylaws, making charter language gender-neutral, and clearer language about when appointed positions have openings as well as that compensated positions do not need to be posted (say if an employee’s contract ends and the town plans to renew or expand the contract).
What’s a local newspaper?
The last motion before Special Town Meeting #1 ended was of particular interest to us, and could even benefit us. It focused on adjusting the definition of local newspaper as pertains to publicizing government meetings and such. “There are just fewer and fewer local newspapers,” the Charter & By-Law Review Committee’s Weithman said, and she noted there is also the issue of keeping up with technology used for communications.
The motion allows for the Select Board—with input via public hearings—to help define what a local newspaper is for the town’s purposes. In other words, just because a a news source dedicated to covering the town isn’t physically in a paper format, like Natick Report, doesn’t mean it’s not a viable way to reach the public with important notifications.
“We’re trying to take advantage of the current assets we have in the town to communicate, but also create an opportunity where we don’t have to have a charter change because technology changes,” Weithman said.
The state has outdated laws requiring communities to publish certain notices in physical newspapers. There is a move afoot to broaden what’s allowed, but there are also traditional publishing companies and lobbyists fighting such progress. Paid legal notices have been a cash cow for print newspapers for years, but online-only publications have been largely left out of this loop except where communities run notices with online publications as well in an effort to actually reach the public.
Select Board member and Town Meeting member Rich Sidney cited discussion at the Massachusetts Municipal Association early this year about efforts to have the legislature do work around redefining notice requirements. The change proposed in Motion 12 under Article 2 of Natick’s Special Town Meeting #1 “nicely dovetails” with where the legislature could be heading, Sidney said.
The motion was approved unanimously, and the Special Town Meeting #1 was dissolved.
Then it was back to Spring Annual Town Meeting.
More: Drama-free Natick Town Meeting Week #1: ‘Tight’ budget approved
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