LWVA Publishes Charter Review Recommendations

By Maura Keene and Art Keene

After two years of study by the League of Women Voters of Amherst (LWVA)  Charter Review Task Force, the League has issued a list of 16 recommendations to the newly appointed town Charter Review Committee and Town Council. The Task Force’s work looked at whether amendments or revisions of specific provisions to the Amherst Home Rule Charter are warranted, based on the LWVA’s “good government” principles. 

The official Charter Review Committee members were appointed by the Amherst Town Council at their meeting on  June 24, 2024 and are in the process of setting up their first meeting.

LWVA Recommendations to Charter Review Committee and Town Council
On June 2, the LWVA held a Zoom meeting to review the Amherst Home Rule Charter Committee recommendations. Members agreed to support 16 of the Committee’s 20 recommendations, in some cases with minor revisions to wording. Below are the recommendations supported by the membership. All recommendations are based on advancement of one or more of the League’s Good Government Principles. 

Charter Preamble
Develop and add a preamble to the Amherst Home Rule Charter, outlining the town’s goals for good government, and including a mission and values statement. Such a statement, as appears in charters of some other Massachusetts municipalities, could address town goals on issues such as (but not limited to) affordable housing, racial equity, and climate change.

Town Council (Article 2)

1. Shorten the current period between election and inauguration of councilors to be no more than 3 weeks.
2. Lengthen and stagger terms for elected offices.
3. Provide each town councilor with an equal opportunity to have a voice and vote on Standing Council Committees.
4. Provide the Town Council with the power to hire its own legal counsel or analyst.
5. Require a second in order for a counselor to postpone discussion under Section 2.1

Town Manager (Article 3)

1. Delineate more clearly the powers of the Town Manager.
2. Require applications for seats on town committees and boards overseen by the Town Manager to be public records, with the consent of the applicant.

Finances (Article 7)

1. Require that resident members of the Finance Committee be granted the right to vote on committee decisions.

Public Participation (Article 8)

1. Provide, at minimum, a period of public comment at the beginning of all regular council, standing council committees and multiple member bodies.

Transition Provisions (Article 10)

1. Include a recommitment to implement the five programs listed in Article 10, including with robust state legislative advocacy:
   a. Ranked Choice Voting
   b. Participatory Budgeting
   c. Creating a position of Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator
   d. Permitting non-citizens to vote in town elections and to hold town elective office e. Lowering the voting age for town elections

New Advocacy
Consider new advocacy for:

1. Local elections in even numbered years to coincide with national elections.
2. Continued hybrid council and virtual council committee meetings.
3. Allow, advocate for electronic signatures on all types of resident petitions

Input from State and National LWV on Term Limits
The consensus committee voted to support term limits for town councilors and school committee members and for the office of council president. After the votes, the Town Charter Task Force was advised that there is a National LWV position opposing term limits that was also supported by LWVMA. The Task Force is in the process of conferring with both state and national organizations about the applicability of the 1991 position to local leagues.

Topics for Future Study
LWVA annual meeting voted on June 13, 2024 to conduct the following two studies, given members interested in working on them. 

1. Study changing to a council/mayor form of government, with or without a town manager, in order to have an elected executive (Article 1). 

2. Study if a voter veto resident vote should be required to be the same percentage in the affirmative as the original vote being challenged in order to pass (Article 8).

LWVA members interested in serving on this study committee please email: lwva@lwvamherst.org

Task Force Background
In 2022, League members voted to conduct a review of the Amherst Home Rule Charter in relation to the LWVA’s Good Government Principles, in anticipation of the Town-required review in 2024. The  Charter Review Task Force was created and, in its first year, conducted a resident survey guided by the LWVA Principles. The results of the survey were published in June 2023 (available here). It concluded that many of the 400 respondents were not fully satisfied with how the Amherst government is functioning. 

In its second year, the Task Force studied sections of the Charter to ascertain which might need amending in light of the Good Government Principles. It met with/received comments from original Amherst Charter Commission members, and from sitting and former Town Council members. It hosted three public discussion sessions (March 17, April 14, and May 5, 2024) about the Task Force’s proposed recommendations for Charter amendments.

Click here for 1st Slide presentation from 3/17/2024

Click here for 2nd Slide presentation from 4/14/2024

Click here for 3rd Slide presentation from 5/5/2024.

Click here for video recordings.

LWVA Task Force members in year one included Phyllis Lehrer, Janet McGowan, Elayne Berger, Darcy DuMont and Marla Jamate. In year two, the Task Force included Darcy DuMont, Marla Jamate, Julian Hynes, and Janet Potash, with Adrienne Terrizzi, Joan Rabin and Phyllis Lehrer as advisors.