Who's the Boss in Westborough?

Who's the boss in Westborough?

Looking at Westborough's town charter had two members of the Massachusetts Municipal Association's Form of Government Committee asking selectmen that question Tuesday night.

"I looked at this and said, 'Who's in charge?'" Franklin Town Administrator Jeff Nutting said.

"Rarely in a charter would you say specific committees, because committees come and go."

Selectmen Chairman Ian Johnson said the board will discuss its next steps at its July meeting.

Having some sort of government study committee is an option, and selectmen would need to give it a direction, Johnson said.

Selectmen met with Nutting, Wellesley Executive Director Hans Larsen and Marilyn Contreras of the state for about an hour at Westborough Town Hall.

Johnson said that selectmen previously discussed "really looking inward at ourselves and our town charter form of government."

"We want to learn. We want to try and do as best we can," he said.

Larsen said Wellesley has a "somewhat unusual brand of government" that's "very centralized" and has "a high number of elected boards and committees."

Wellesley's 240-member Representative Town Meeting typically runs four to seven nights, with a fall special town meeting, he said.

"We're a little bit extreme in terms of our form of government," Larsen said.

"When people arrive at town meeting, there's a spirited, thoughtful, sometimes lengthy discussion on all the points," he added.

A number of Wellesley town government study committees have discussed moving to a town manager form of government like Westborough, he said.

Contreras said she was asked to look at Westborough's charter and note "the features that are of some concern to me."

Westborough passed its charter in 1974 and has since amended it into what now "most resembles a hybrid," Contreras said: "half charter and half operations manual."

"You've created new terms. It's never a good thing. The Commonwealth has plenty of terms. Use our terms," Contreras said.

"It's so specific, you've impeded your ability to manage."

Nutting said that in 1978, Franklin converted to a nine-member council, all elected at large, with an administrator.

"The council replaced the town meeting, and the town administrator replaced the board of selectmen," he said.

"Nine people do what your 100, or 200, depending on what town meeting shows up."

The council meets twice per month, Nutting said.

"It's a government that 'They say yes, they say no, and then we go on,'" he said.

"It's e-mail government instead of snail mail government. The council has the ability to act in a very quick fashion if they need to."

Selectman Denny Drewry said that with a council "the people are going to know, 'How does Denny Drewry really vote?'"

Selectman Leigh Emery said the discussion made her realize "I want to learn more about both of these forms of government."

Vice Chairman George Barrette asked about getting a quorum with a Representative Town Meeting.

Larsen said Wellesley has no quorum. One occasional issue is getting people to serve as town meeting members.

Barrette said Westborough's town meeting does not have a quorum, "and depending on what happens, we get the same 100 or so, 140 people that come to our town meetings."

"So, there's an argument that we have a Representative Town Meeting already," Barrette said.