Harvard’s newly elected Charter Commission met for the first time Tuesday night, electing Paul Cohen of Candleberry Lane as chairman and Cindy Russo of Oak Hill Road as vice-chairwoman; setting a meeting schedule; and making plans for a first public hearing.
Town Clerk Janet Vellante called the meeting to order promptly at 7 p.m. in the Hapgood Room of the old library. All nine members were present, as was Worth Robbins, chief advocate for a town charter (and co-owner of this paper), who had volunteered to serve as a consultant and resource to the group.
After a round of introductions and handshakes, the group got quickly to work. The first order of business “and the last order of business for me,” Vellante said, was to elect officers. Cohen and Russo were quickly elected by unanimous vote. Both were nominated by panel member and 2016 citizen-of-note Rick Maiore, who in turn found himself elected recording secretary by his colleagues.
The nine commissioners were elected at this year’s April 12 Town Election, where voters approved the ballot question creating a commission by a 571–191 margin. Its purpose is to devise a charter for the town, a document that lays out and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the town’s elected boards and committees, and its administrative officers, especially the town administrator or manager.
Cohen, who is Chelmsford’s town manager and a former Harvard town administrator, said in his initial comments that creating a charter for Harvard should not be difficult. Portions of the town’s structure are codified in its bylaws, he noted. No one has asked for a change to Town Meeting, he said, and the schools are “off the table” because they are already subject to state regulations that remove much of the authority of towns and place it in the hands of the School Committee and administrators.
“Whatever the outcome of this committee’s efforts,” said Cohen, “a charter in and of itself doesn’t change the government. It’s what’s inside the charter that matters.” With Harvard’s bylaws already codified, Cohen said, a charter would overlay them, “much like you have the [U.S.] Constitution and the laws of the land,” he said. “The end product of this effort ultimately goes to the voters of this community for an up or down vote.”
Set May 25 as first meeting date
State law requires a charter commission to hold its first public hearing within 45 days of its election and with 10 days’ advance notice in a town paper, rules that provide the Harvard commission with a window between May 9 and May 26. At their Tuesday meeting, members agreed to aim for May 25. That date is especially attractive, said Maiore, because it could be the first public meeting held in the renovated second floor of Town Hall, helping to heighten attendance.
The commission also agreed to hold working meetings on the first and third Thursday of each month and to hold at least one public hearing every other month, with the next working meeting planned for May 5. Invited to that meeting will be a representative from Groton to provide background and advice on that town’s charter experience. The commission invited Robbins to appear as well to explain the support he could provide as a consultant and potential host of resource materials at the Harvard Matters website.
Planning for the first public hearing was the main topic of the remaining one and three-quarters hours of discussion. Commissioner Ron Ostberg said it was important that the public be given an opportunity “to ventilate” and for the commission to listen before developing a plan of action. Commissioner George McKenna said he doubted that most citizens understood the way town government currently works, and he proposed that the commission create a simple narrative for citizens to consider before the first hearing. Robbins suggested an approach that would create a “base” charter for Harvard, one that showed “things as they are,” by putting the town’s existing bylaws into a charter format, using organizational headings taken from the charter of a neighboring town. Cohen proposed that the Groton charter might be used as a template.
‘A lot of work ahead’
In other business, Commissioner Sharon McCarthy urged that the commission adopt a remote access policy that would allow up to four members to “dial” into meetings when they were out of town. Cohen suggested that the start of each working meeting be open for public comment and that meetings last no longer than 90 minutes, unless extended by a vote of the commissioners.
With that, the meeting adjourned. “We have a lot of work ahead,” said Cohen.
