Charter review committee votes to recess work and urges assembly not to add a separate ballot question

The Barnstable County Charter Review Committee voted unanimously to recess its deliberations and recommended that the full Assembly of Delegates not add another ballot question to the 2026 election, saying an additional question would be redundant and could confuse voters.

A committee report to the assembly said the commissioners had already submitted a ballot question asking voters whether to create an elected charter commission and that the review committee "felt that adding another ballot question would be redundant and could confuse voters, especially since the commissioners had already taken the initiative to put the ballot issue for an elected charter commission on the ballot." The report recorded a 6-0 vote; Patrick Princi was absent.

The committee forwarded a draft with grammatical and outdated charter references to the full assembly and said it would reconvene if voters rejected the commissioners' charter-study question. The clerk told the assembly staff will take a final look at the draft and forward it to delegates "very soon." The assembly did not take separate action during the session; members were told the ordinance submitted by the board of regional commissioners will be scheduled for a finance committee review per assembly rules.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: staff will finalize and circulate the committee draft to delegates and schedule the commissioners' ordinance for a finance committee meeting before full assembly consideration.