Next week Waitsfield voters will hear the select board explain why they should vote for adopting a town charter.
Among other things, adopting a charter will remove voter authority to elect a town clerk and treasurer and vest that authority instead with the select board.
The reasoning from the select board is that the change is needed so that when the town's budgeting committee is preparing the annual budget, the select board and committee can require the town treasurer to do certain tasks in a certain time frame.
The board may have other reasons for asking voters to give up their statutory authority to elect these town officials and hopefully those will be explained at the two public forums slated to discuss the proposal.
However, it seems like a rather drastic and heavy-handed solution to what might be solved via better communication and clarification about expectations.
The Vermont statutes separate town clerks and treasurers from select board authority for a reason. The statute allows voters to elect these two town officers for a reason. Town clerks certify elections and they need to be independent of the town's authority. Town treasurers balance the books and the budget. Should they really be subject to select board authority?
To get out of complying with this statute, towns must convince voters to adopt the charter and then petition the Legislature to have its new governance model approved.
Is that really necessary? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. No one has presented any solid evidence that the system is broken. It's hard to understand how the loss of citizen authority is justified.
This is not to suggest this is a power grab on behalf of the select board, but it is a real and serious decision to remove any power and authority from voters.
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