Commission weighs retaining, reducing or moving constable provisions from charter

The commission spent significant time reviewing the town charter's treatment of constables and possible reforms.

Consultant counsel and commissioners outlined two types of constables: charter-embedded constables with limited civil-process duties and ordinance-created constables that can have broader authority (including some criminal-process tasks if enabled). Commissioners noted the charter currently references eight constables while a statute discussed in the meeting was interpreted to limit election-based constables to seven, creating a likely statutory conflict that requires legal clarification. One commissioner said "we could be in noncompliance" and the group agreed to research the statutory language further.

Debate covered partisan balance (the charter's current structure assumed two parties), options to cap party representation (for example, "no more than four from any one party"), and whether to convert constable positions from elected to appointed roles. Training and liability for untrained appointees were recurring concerns; one consultant recommended any retained constable language include required training and oversight standards to limit municipal exposure. Commissioners discussed leaving constables in the charter only if updated with clearer duties and statutory compliance or moving the entire provision to ordinance with a transition plan.

No formal decision was made; commissioners added constables to the workplan for the next meeting and asked counsel to provide statutory references and draft options (retain with changes, move to ordinance, or eliminate).