[B]ENNINGTON — A vocal promoter of a mayor for Bennington plans a forum to discuss his new ballot referendum — along with whatever proposals residents have for the town’s future.
“I want to broaden this discussion to talk about more than the mayor’s petition,” said advocate Mike Bethel, who has tentatively scheduled the event for June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Bennington Firehouse.
Bethel has a new petition calling for a charter change to replace the appointed town manager’s position with an elected mayor, a proposal that was shot down on a vote of 1,483 to 954 during the annual meeting in March.
However, Bethel said the new petition wording — once again prepared by his attorney, Paul Gillies — has been changed to eliminate provisions that drew criticism prior to the March vote.
Essentially, the newly drafted proposed charter amendment calls for replacing the town manager and choosing a mayor for a three-year term in the following election. The proposal also adds an override provision for vetoes imposed by the mayor, which would require that five of the seven Select Board members agree.
The previous Bethel proposal was heavily criticized for giving the mayor a veto “over any action of the Selectboard” but not mentioning anything about an override provision for mayoral decisions.
The new amendment wording also states: “Within 30 days of the vote to override [the mayor], voters may petition for a binding referendum on the issue by a petition signed by five percent of the voters. At a special town meeting held within 60 days of the receipt of the petition, the voters shall decide whether to uphold the mayor’s veto.”
The proposal also calls for the mayor’s salary to be “set by the Selectboard base on comparable salaries and benefits for a town manager.”
Another criticism of the first proposal was that a person elected by popular vote might be lacking in managerial experience, especially compared to a hired professional manager. But Bethel said he decided against including a business manager’s position in the charter amendment, believing the Select Board and/or mayor could make the decision at any time to hire such an employee.
“There is no prohibition against hiring a business manager,” he said.
Bethel said he initially wanted the forum to focus only on the new petition wording, but he now believes it best to open the event to other governmental ideas as well.
“I’m also looking for feedback from the public, on any and all issues,” he said, adding that anyone interested in discussing his proposal or the upcoming meeting can contact him at 802-442-9196.
Petition drive
The earlier mayoral proposal was placed on the March town ballot through a petition drive, which requires signatures of at least 5 percent of registered voters, or just over 450 signatures. The current proposal would be promoted in the same manner, although Bethel said he hasn’t yet launched a signature drive.
Bethel added that he has asked Bruce Lee-Clark, who is retiring as pre-law instructor with the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center after more than 20 years, to moderate the forum on June 27.
“I agreed to be moderator of an event to discuss this,” Lee-Clark said this week. “I would hope there could be a real conversation with both sides being heard.”
He said he is not approaching the role as an advocate for one side of the mayor issue or another but would be willing to offer his opinions during the forum.
Bethel said he also has asked the local cable network, CAT-TV, to record the meeting.
