Nantucket committee details proposal to replace open town meeting with town council–manager government

The Town Council Study Committee on Saturday outlined a draft charter that would replace Nantucket’s long‑standing open town meeting with a nine‑member, at‑large town council and a town manager, and described a multi‑step path to implement the change that would require state approval.

Joe Grouse, chair of the Town Council Study Committee, told about 40 residents that the committee had “unanimously vote[d] back in about June of last year to go forward with … a conversion to town council, town manager,” and that the draft charter the group has completed would make the town’s legislative body a nine‑member council elected at large, with rolling three‑year terms.

The document presented at the session would also set compensation levels in the draft: a $40,000 annual stipend for councilors and a $50,000 stipend for the council president. The committee described a transition period during which the select board and the new council would coexist for part of a fiscal year, and said full implementation would be contingent on a home‑rule petition to the state and additional local votes; if everything proceeded “perfectly,” the committee estimated a likely earliest implementation in the first half of 2027.

Why it matters

The proposal would change Nantucket’s legislative process from a direct‑democracy model—open town meeting, which the committee said typically draws about 5%–15% of the population—to a representative model that the committee says meets more regularly. Proponents said a council could act year‑round, pull expertise together more quickly and provide identifiable elected officials…