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Middleton charter review committee votes to bundle amendments, approves Town Counsel edits and appoints review subgroup
Summary
The Middleton Charter Review Committee voted Feb. 20 to present a single Town Meeting article containing all proposed charter amendments, accepted or modified multiple Town Counsel recommendations for specific sections, and appointed a three-member subgroup to review the redline before it goes on the warrant.
Co-Chair Trevor Currier called the Middleton Charter Review Committee to order at 5:31 p.m. on Feb. 20 at Fuller Meadow School Library, and members spent the meeting reviewing Town Counsel's suggested edits to the town charter and voting on targeted changes.
The committee decided to bundle all draft changes into a single Town Meeting warrant article rather than submit multiple separate articles. That decision came amid a section-by-section review in which the committee either accepted Town Counsel's recommended language, accepted it with edits, or retained existing wording depending on the section.
Committee members approved a series of motions on individual sections. For example, committee member Sharon Bainbridge moved, and James Vining seconded, to accept Town Counsel's suggested language for section 2-4-5; the motion passed unanimously. On section 2-4-7, committee member George Dow Sr moved, and Vining seconded, to retain the existing language rather than adopt counsel's recommendation; the committee voted unanimously to keep the original language. On section 2-4-11 the committee accepted Town Counsel's recommendation but voted to delete the words "Subdivision" and "Planning." On 5-4-2 the committee voted 4–1 (motion by Sharon Bainbridge, second by James Vining) to keep the language as written and to add the phrase "zoning and subdivision."
Other specific edits approved included changes to Chapter 3 (removing the phrase "by the Town Clerk" from 3-1-2 and changing gendered language such as "his" to the gender-neutral "their"), removing the word "doubtful" from a 4-4-1 provision, and striking the word "fulltime" from 6-5-2. The committee also accepted counsel's notes across numerous sections where the minutes record agreement.
On vacancies language in section 5-2-1 (motion by Sharon Bainbridge, second by George Dow Sr), the committee voted unanimously to remove the words "or offices" and to add the sentence: "Vacancies in other elected offices shall be filled in accordance with state law." The minutes record the committee's intention to follow state law on filling vacancies; the transcript does not cite a specific statute.
Members of the public raised questions during the public-comment period, including clarification on the change to 2-4-11, whether a review could be called sooner than every 10 years, how citizen petitions would be handled, concerns that changing 2-4-5 could move the charter from making materials available to requiring mailed copies, and the potential cost of printing and mailing the warrant. The committee discussed those points and determined the 10-year cadence language adopted (see section 10-1-1) was sufficient.
A final motion by Frank Twiss, seconded by James Vining, passed unanimously to accept all changes made at the meeting and to appoint Co-Chair Trevor Currier, Natalie Lovett and Sharon Bainbridge to review the redline copy of the charter before submission to Town Meeting. The committee adjourned at 7:36 p.m.
The minutes were submitted by Meetings Secretary Kristi M. Bialecki. Next procedural steps: the appointed subgroup will review the redline and the committee will place the bundled article on the Town Meeting warrant for Middleton residents to consider.
