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Madison Charter Review to Launch Public-Driven Process at Hearing This Week

With new energy and a desire to have their process formulated by the townsfolk at large, the long-anticipated Charter Review Commission is holding its first public hearing and information session this Thursday evening, Feb. 25, aiming to both speak on the process and, more important, let residents tell them what is important.

Commission Chair Joe MacDougald, a long-time leader in Madison government with stints on the Board of Selectmen (BOS) and the Planning & Zoning Commission, told The Source he is excited to bring “inbound” momentum to what will potentially culminate in voters deciding on changes to the town’s founding document.

“The first meeting is about, ‘Tell us what you think,’” he said.

Governed relatively strictly by state statute, the commission must hold a public hearing before any “substantive” work, and at least one more before submitting its final report to the BOS. The BOS will work with the commission on the specifics and hold its own public hearing, eventually choosing whether to submit proposed changes to the voters at referendum.

The last charter review commission was held in 2015 and the changes it proposed mostly focused on town meeting responsibilities and formatting, but also opened the possibility for bigger changes like potentially adding a town manager and giving more power to the BOS in disputes with the Board of Finance.

These changes were voted down at the ballot box, with about 63 percent of voters against the charter tweaks.

MacDougald said he foresees a slightly different process this time, with a dogged focus on reaching out to different groups: board members, town employees, and other residents who have various specific concerns or expertise.

With the commission charged with delivering its report by the end of the year, this outreach will be a large part of the work, he said.

Additionally, the pandemic-altered world gives the commission and the town a unique opportunity to re-evaluate how their town is governed.

“The topics should be driven a lot by what we hear, but I think that’s something I’m personally very interested in,” he said.

He added he would be “stunned” if the subject of virtual meetings, communication, and voting wasn’t something that was brought to the commission’s attention by residents, referencing Madison first virtual town meeting that, despite significant technical difficulties, allowed residents to successfully cast votes from home.

MacDougald also assured those wanting to attend the commission’s public hearing that they will not have to go through the process of checking in with IDs or jumping through several virtual rooms like at the town meeting; they will be able to simply log in and talk or listen.

“If anyone was discouraged by that long delay, come to the Charter Review—we’ll let you right in,” he said with a laugh.

MacDougald noted that the commission is not looking to bring solutions and answers to the table at this early point in their work, emphasizing again that it will be up to townsfolk to drive the conversation.

“Literally the beginning, this first process...we’re really focused on trying to understand the charter as it sits,” he said.

How the town informs residents about things like the budget, with restrictions on the timeline and how meetings or votes are noticed could also potentially be topics in the age of digital communication and virtual meetings, he added.

The first challenge, though, is getting as many people as possible to speak about their concerns or ideas. MacDougald said he hopes to see different, informal networks of people leveraged, eventually snowballing into larger groups of engaged townsfolk who can reach out to the commission or lobby for aspects of the town that they see as important.

MacDougald said he hopes that he and the commission can explain the real importance and power of the charter to people who might not be all that interested or knowledgeable about their local government, and let them know that these issues are real and relevant to the average Madisonite.

“You’re going about your busy life—I mean, it’s a charter, it sounds like we should be burying it under a tree. We’ll have to pull out our quill and scratch on it,” he joked.

But MacDougald again cited some of the recent energy around town government and participation, saying there is plenty of evidence Madison residents have ideas and a desire to help drive these processes, which have plenty of significance in a new modern world.

“I’m hoping in this public hearing and a couple hearings, we’ll get consensus on the types of questions” to ask, he added.