The Select Board has formally dissolved the Town Charter Committee after receiving the committee’s final work product.
The Charter Committee was formed April 24, 2024, with the mission of developing Marblehead’s first town charter, similar to a constitution. The group examined Marblehead’s existing government structure, authorities and processes.
The committee submitted a package of materials, including Draft C of a proposed charter, an executive summary, appendices, organizational charts, potential recall language, public forum and hearing points, and alignment memoranda.
Charter Committee Chair Amy Drinker emphasized that Draft C is not intended to be treated as a finished charter ready for adoption.
“I just want to really make the point that Draft C is a working draft; it is not a final draft of the charter,” she said. “It’s 32 pages long, and it may serve as a baseline for further charter development.”
The executive summary includes suggested next steps and a proposed timeline if the town decides to continue pursuing a charter initiative. Drinker asked that the materials be posted to the town’s charter webpage.
You can read Draft C here:
Board members thanked the 11 current and former committee members for their work, noting the amount of time devoted to the project and the range of information members reviewed while developing the proposed charter.
The board plans to take additional time to review the materials before discussing what, if any, next steps it wants to pursue.
Drinker urged the Select Board to review town bylaws and “make revisions/updates before continuing the charter process. Consider a periodic bylaw review process.”
One lesson learned from the Charter Committee’s hundreds of hours of work?
“After 375 years without one, there has to be a good answer to the question, ‘Why does Marblehead need a charter now?’” Drinker said.
