BENNINGTON — Advocates hoping to have the town switch to the mayoral form of government fell 38 signatures short Monday in their quest for a vote, but they still expect to place a binding referendum on the March ballot.
Mike Bethel, one of those spearheading the petition drive, said 476 signatures were submitted to the Bennington town clerk’s office, a total expected to be more than the 5 percent of registered voters required.
However, Town Clerk Cassandra Barbeau said Monday afternoon that, due to a number of duplicate signatures and others disqualified for different reasons, the total certified by her office was 415.
She said it’s likely that some people signed the petition twice since it was circulated outside the polling place during two separate local elections, in October and November.
Bethel said he has no doubt the final signatures will be gathered before the deadline for town meeting ballots in January.
“We will get them. We just wanted to see where we were,” he said.
A longtime advocate of replacing the town manager with a mayor, Bethel said he wants an official “who will be accountable to the people” through the ballot box. He believes the current format’s lack of accountability is reflected in a lack of economic progress in Bennington.
The referendum would be binding, Bethel said, and would force an amendment to the town’s government charter to basically eliminate the town manager’s post in favor of an elected mayor.
He said the process would require determinations as to the length of term the mayor would serve and other details in time for election of the first officeholder in March 2019.
No other provisions of the charter would change, he said, and the town would remain a town, not become a city, and continue to have a selectboard. However, the ballot question specifies that the mayor would have veto power over actions of the board and could vote if necessary to make or break a tie.
Attorney Paul Gillies, of Tarrant, Gillies & Richardson, of Montpelier, a former deputy secretary of state, drew up the ballot question, Bethel said. Gillies could not be reached for comment.
“Strong mayor”
In addition to representing the town, the mayor would assume the managerial duties of the current town manager position — an aspect of the post that is indicative of the so-called strong mayor form of government. That likely would have a mayor with authority to manage the annual budget and hire or fire employees, with a town board that votes to approve the budget bottom line and possibly ratifies hiring of administration employees.
In Vermont, Rutland has a strong mayor format, with an elected mayor and Board of Aldermen. That format was chosen, Bethel said, because it is “the strongest form of mayor you can get in Vermont.”
The veto power and other provisions in the proposal for Bennington have drawn criticism from some local officials, who contend that no drastic governmental change is needed, especially one enacted without a great deal of input from the public as to its provisions and impacts.
Bethel said he sees an urgent need for turnover, contending that a mayor could act decisively and better represent the town to attract businesses to the area. He said none of the current economic development initiatives, including the $53 million Putnam Block redevelopment plan, “are going anywhere” and that a new approach is needed.
Charter review
At the same time the mayoral advocates have mounted their petition drive, a seven-member Charter Review Committee appointed by the Selectboard has been meeting. The group has been going through the current 26-page charter and preparing a list of recommended revisions for the board to consider and possibly submit to voters in March. The group has scheduled a public hearing on charter issues for Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 5:30 p.m. at the Bennington firehouse.
While discussing a mayoral option for Bennington in October, none of the committee members spoke in favor of a strong mayor format, although there was some support for consideration of a so-called weak mayor format.
The latter would involve a mostly ceremonial position, possibly the Selectboard chair, who might be directly elected to that post by voters and would represent the town but not have authority to manage the budget. That authority would still reside with the town manager.
In Vermont towns or cities with this format, a manager is hired to oversee the day-to-day functions of local government.
Charter committee members also were critical of the idea of drastically changing local government through a binding referendum, as opposed to the deliberative and more modest changes they’ve been considering for several months.
Bethel said Monday that the petition drive is “not against” the town manager, Stuart Hurd, but in favor of the mayoral format. Bethel said anyone could run for the office of mayor, including Hurd. He has been town manager for 25 years.
Selectboard Chairman Thomas Jacobs said of the petition, “A very brief reaction to the Bethel petition is I see no significant benefit to a mayoral form of governance for a town the size of Bennington. Engaging an individual as our town manager who brings expertise in overseeing the critical operations of the town is, and can continue to be, the most efficient form of government.”
A vote on the mayoral question would be the third in Bennington since the 1990s, but the first binding referendum. The proposal was defeated in the prior townwide votes.
Bennington is one of 54 Vermont communities with a municipal manager format, in which the manager is hired by the selectboard but then typically has authority over hiring of employees and oversees the budget after it is adopted.
