Proponents Continue To Push Charter Commission Petition

HARWICH – Proponents continue to gather petition signatures calling for the establishment of a charter commission that would be charged with revising the town’s more than 35-year-old home rule charter. To be placed on the May 21 annual election ballot, the petition will require 1,716 signatures.

The signature gathering efforts will be accelerated after the holidays, said Sandra Hall, the primary petition sponsor. Hall estimated they have between 500 and 600 signatures on petition sheets, but said there are numerous sheets circulated, so a concise count is not available at this time.

Hall said she put together a flyer explaining what the petition is about, and she is in the midst of getting quotes on the cost and timing of production. There will also be stepped up efforts to collect signatures in various locations across town, she added.

Under state statutes an elected charter commission is required when considering a change in the administrative, executive, or legislative form of town government. Minor adjustments can be made to the charter with town meeting approval and a subsequent affirmative vote of a ballot question, or through special legislation.

Charter commission ballot questions placed before voters are accompanied by a list of candidates to be elected to serve on a nine-member commission, which is charged with addressing changes to the document that spells out how the municipality functions.

“The select board wants to create a charter in their own image and how they want it to be,” said Hall, the chair of the 1986 charter commission, and a former select board member. “The select board wants to do its own review of the charter. But I think we need to do an independent review top to bottom.”

In an email, Town Clerk Emily Mitchell wrote that it is “advised that petitioners submit the notice of a completed filing to the registrars at least 100 days before the election in which the petitioners seek to have the question placed on the ballot.”

The last day for filing the petition to meet the May 21 annual election is Feb. 9, according to Mitchell.

Lou Urbano has been collecting signatures for the petition and said people who are aware of what’s going on in town are “incredibly receptive” to signing the petition, he said. People who are unfamiliar with the issues are willing to sign the petition once it is explained to them, he said.

Urbano said the sentiment he is hearing is that people within the community elected to serve on the commission should be writing the charter, and not town officials.

Hall said she recently met with members of the Harwich Community Group, the recently formed citizen organization focusing on community issues, and there was a lot of interest in pursuing the charter revision process. But Hall said there was also strong support for moving ahead with a separate petition proposing a charter amendment for an elected charter enforcement committee that would be charged with adjudicating violations and interpretation issues.

“It makes sense, it would be quicker than the full charter commission [process],” Hall said. ”And if the signature collection for a charter commission falls short, we could have this [provision] in place.”

Hall said if they do not collect enough signatures for a filing for the upcoming annual election, “there’s nothing to say we can’t keep it going to the next year