[B]ENNINGTON — An article calling for a mayor of Bennington has easily drawn the most attention among ballot questions on town warrants in southwestern Vermont.
Bennington’s town manager/selectboard system is pitted against a proposed mayoral government format in a binding referendum going before voters on March 6.
In Bennington, the elected-mayor-versus-appointed-manager question has come up before, but past town votes were all nonbinding, asking whether voters supported the idea of a mayoral system. All were defeated at the polls.
This year, however, a petition spearheaded by local advocate Mike Bethel would force a binding charter change calling for a “strong mayor” with “the power to veto any action of the select board.”
He and others contend a mayor would be more accountable to the voters. Bethel also has called for voters to shake up the “status quo,” which he believes has resulted in a lack of progress on economic issues.
The proposal apparently has little to no support among town officials or staff members, but it was placed on the ballot through a petition drive that collected more than 450 voter signatures.
“The old guard is against it,” Bethel said recently, contending that officials are using “scare tactics” about the wording of the article — especially concerning the mayor’s veto power — to “protect the status quo.”
Stuart Hurd has served as town manager since 1992. He was recently denied a raise (his current salary is $108,472) after he ordered construction of a $425,000 sand and salt shed in 2017 without waiting for the required state wetlands permit. The town now faces possible fines from the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The board met in January with Hurd in executive session but has not announced any decision or action relative to the permit issue, claiming it is a personnel matter that is not subject to public purview. The wetlands permit eventually was obtained by the town, in early January.
The Selectboard recently received recommendations from a charter review committee designed to the improve oversight of the town manager. Those recommended steps are designed to increase accountability by limiting town manager terms to three years before a renewal is required and mandating annual manager reviews. The board has put off a town vote on the charter committee’s list of recommended change until June.
Opponents of the mayoral form of government have argued that an elected mayor position could open Bennington to increased partisanship and to a person unqualified to manage a town government — chosen in “a popularity contest.”
They also argue that the ballot question leaves many important details of the proposed mayoral format to be determined later, with no clear indication how that process would occur.
But Bethel contends that a “yes” vote on March 6 would “only be the first step” in the process of creating a mayoral system.
“I want people to be well aware that this is only step one,” Bethel said. “Step two is when we can define what kind of mayor we want.”
That process would take at least a year, he said, and would address such issues as the length of term for the mayor, a recall process and whether a veto override is needed.
He argues that as the article is written the Select Board would “still control the purse,” and the mayor could not make any decisions without support from a majority of the board.
The Selectboard chair Thomas Jacobs disagrees with the concept and a Town Charter Committee was unanimous in opposing the mayoral plan.
“The proponents of the article should find no comfort in the blind hope or expectation the Vermont Legislature will save this flawed ballot offering by amending or revamp it if by some stretch of the imagination it is approved as they have petitioned,” Jacobs said. “It is an article which provides the community with but an unchecked form of government which has no place in our community. Notwithstanding the limited view of the few this community can and is moving forward.”
