ORANGE — The town is one step closer to changing its form of government after voters at Monday’s Special Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly in favor of an article petitioning the state Legislature to pass a bill establishing Orange’s first town charter.
Those inside Town Hall’s Ruth B. Smith Auditorium voted 155-12 on the warrant’s final article to change and modernize the local government’s organizational structure and operation. Susannah Whipps, who represents Orange in the state House of Representatives, said she now intends to file the bill to establish the charter.
“The [Charter Advisory Committee] has stayed in touch with my office throughout the process,” Whipps, I-Athol, wrote in an email. “I’m very excited for the town of Orange and their new leadership structure. I think this will greatly benefit the town.”
Tom Sexton, who chaired the Charter Advisory Committee, has said there are a few options as to when the charter would take effect, but it would almost certainly happen this year. A charter essentially serves as a town’s constitution, providing the blueprint for how municipal government is structured and how it operates to serve the needs of the citizens.
Orange currently operates under an established set of town bylaws, practices and procedures, and according to applicable general laws and regulations, with a town administrator who works on behalf of the five-member Selectboard to coordinate across municipal departments and operations. Adoption of the charter creates a strong town manager role to serve as chief administrative officer and direct day-to-day operations across most of the municipal government structure.
Standing in front of his fellow citizens on Monday, Sexton reiterated his opinion that it is unreasonable to ask a five-member volunteer Selectboard to operate a town of nearly 8,000 people and a budget of more than $29 million.
The charter calls for the Selectboard, by an affirmative vote of at least four members, to appoint a town manager, who could also be disciplined or removed by an affirmative vote of at least four Selectboard members. The town manager will have the authority to hire, discipline and terminate town employees (with specific exceptions that relate to employees under the jurisdiction of the library trustees, water commissioners, airport commission, housing authority and school committees), appoint employees to one- to three-year terms, and discipline or remove appointed employees.
Although current Town Administrator Matthew Fortier could move into the town manager role, the job, once defined and posted, will be open to all interested candidates. An affirmative vote from at least four Selectboard members will ultimately decide who will serve as town manager.
Also, Orange’s Annual Town Meeting will now be held the second Monday in May, as opposed to the third Monday in June, as outlined in the charter.
Voters opted to accept the charter as proposed, despite three attempts at amendments. Peter Cross, chair of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District School Committee, made a motion to remove a mention of his committee in a section detailing an expectation to submit its budget to the town manager, and Mallory Ellis, chair of the Orange Elementary School Committee, attempted to push back the date the budgets would be due.
Additionally, resident Laurie MacDonald made an unsuccessful motion to have the charter mandate a three-member Selectboard. But Sexton mentioned the advisory committee received a great deal of feedback on the topic of Selectboard membership.
“It was probably the most common piece of input that we got,” he said, “but the committee decided to stay with five for a couple reasons.”
He elaborated that Town Meeting voters have twice expressed a preference for five members, as opposed to three. It is also helpful for two members of a five-member board to have the ability to discuss a subject without fear of an Open Meeting Law violation; with a three-member Selectboard, a discussion between two members would constitute a quorum and would equate to an improper meeting.
Longtime resident George Willard mentioned that when he was a member of the three-person Selectboard several years ago, all members had to be careful to avoid one another in public to honor the Open Meeting Law.
The entire charter can be found at shorturl.at/c14Jy.
Other articles
Earlier in the Special Town Meeting, residents adopted an article appropriating $137,500 to remediate asbestos where the Orange Municipal Airport plans to build six T-hangars, where aircraft are stored. According to Airport Manager Adam Klumpp, the hazardous materials were discovered during soil testing in October.
Klumpp previously said that hangar rental fees go directly into the town’s general fund, and more hangars will bring in more pilots to store their airplanes on site and buy fuel at the airport. The 30 existing hangars on the airport’s property are privately owned, with property taxes going to the town.
Voters also adopted an article transferring and appropriating $41,150 from the Building Demolition Special Purpose Fund to establish a Building Inspector Special Purpose Fund, enabling the town to hire qualified and certified applicants at market-rate compensation.
Also adopted were articles allowing the Selectboard to establish a 25 mph speed limit on any roadway inside a thickly settled or business district on any way that is not a state highway, and amending eligibility for the senior property tax exemption.
One hundred and eighty-six (or 2.75%) of Orange’s 6,756 registered voters showed up to the Special Town Meeting. Quorum is 75.