Committee reviews H.516 to update Essex town charter; town vote totals presented

The Southern Government Operations Committee on Wednesday heard testimony on H.516, a bill to implement a set of charter changes approved by Essex voters at March 2025 town meeting. Representative Leonora Dodge, the House sponsor, and Greg Duggan, Town Manager for Essex, told the committee the edits are largely cleanup and governance clarifications tied to recommendations from the town’s Charter Review Committee.

The measure bundles several changes voters approved at town meeting. Greg Duggan read the reported town totals: the article to clarify the town moderator’s role passed (yes 909, no 74, blank 24); changing timing for approval of select board minutes passed (yes 758, no 183, blank 66); changing appointments made by the select board and town manager passed (yes 720, no 208, blank 79); requiring mailed notice to residents about the availability of the annual report and auditor’s report passed (yes 675, no 286, blank 46); renaming the Department of Real Estate Appraisal to Department of Assessment passed (yes 696, no 224, blank 87); removing the description of transacting business already voted by Australian ballot passed (yes 659, no 274, blank 74); and de minimis wording/formatting edits passed (yes 793, no 150, blank 64). Duggan said he would provide the committee with the full vote records by email to staff.

Committee members pressed for background on substantive items. Duggan described the change to select board minutes approval as practical: the charter currently requires approval at the next meeting even when scheduling makes that difficult, so the amendment permits approval “as soon as reasonably possible” while draft minutes are still posted within five days to comply with open meeting law. On appointments, the committee discussed moving some volunteer-board appointments (for example, cemetery commissioners) from the town manager to select board appointment and removing obsolete positions from the charter; the charter text also adds the fire chief to the list requiring select board approval.

Duggan described the change to mailed notices for the annual and auditor’s reports as giving the town flexibility to send a postcard notice rather than mail a full printed report to every household. "It costs about $10,000–$11,000," Duggan said, adding that many full printed reports end up in the recycling bin. Committee members asked and were assured residents could still request a mailed copy of the full report.

The committee spent notable time on a new definition of "incapacity," which the proposed charter language says "shall include" failure by any select board member to attend at least 50% of meetings in a calendar year. Members asked why the committee chose 50 percent; Bruce Post, chair of the town’s Charter Review Committee, explained the threshold reflected prior charter language and the group’s deliberations balancing voter choice against the practical need for functioning boards. "If you're missing half the meetings, you're missing a heck of a lot of stuff," Post said.

Duggan and Post also described the process that produced the package: a Charter Review Committee formed in 2022 met weekly, reviewed the charter deeply, and forwarded a set of recommendations to the select board; most of those recommendations were approved by voters and later by the legislature. Committee members asked about turnout; Duggan estimated roughly 1,100 people voted and said Essex has about 4,000 registered voters, putting turnout in the roughly 20–25% range, and said he would confirm exact figures.

No formal committee vote on H.516 was recorded during this hearing. Chair asked Duggan to send the committee the complete town-meeting vote tallies and closed the hearing, noting related items on the next day’s agenda and the joint assembly in the morning. The committee left the record open for those supplementary materials.