BRATTLEBORO — A petition now circulating is seeking a March advisory vote on whether this municipality should replace its appointed town manager system with an elected mayor.
“By many standards we’re a small town, but the reality is Brattleboro is a regional hub,” says Daniel Yates, president of the Brattleboro Savings and Loan and a petition organizer. “It’s appropriate to put the question out to the voters — what do you think?”
The town’s nearly 9,500 voters currently elect a five-member Selectboard that, in turn, chooses a town manager to preside over a 150-employee municipal government. Petition organizers say they don’t oppose any of the current people in the posts. Instead, they’re concerned that only a simple majority of the Selectboard has a say in choosing the locality’s top leader.
“It only takes three people to hire or fire the town manager,” former Selectboard chairman Dick DeGray says. “When you have a population of 12,000, we ought to have more say and let the people vote on who governs the community.”
DeGray proposed the same idea seven years ago when current Town Manager Peter Elwell’s predecessor stepped down and the Selectboard started looking for a replacement.
Many people approached with the petition are asking how the new governance system would work. Organizers say they want to gauge public interest about the general idea before proposing any specifics.
“Those are all things you can debate and determine, but it’s all moot unless you know there’s support for a change,” DeGray says. “Because it is a long, cumbersome process, there’s no sense in putting time and effort into a discussion if there isn’t any interest.”
Adds Yates: “People have talked about this but the question is never answered. If the voters come back and say no, that’s the end of it.”
Currently eight cities and towns elect leaders who are part of the Vermont Mayors Coalition. Burlington and Rutland have full-time positions, while Barre, Montpelier, Newport, St. Albans, Vergennes and Winooski have posts that are supplemented by professional managers.
Under Brattleboro’s proposal, voters would cast Australian ballots March 3 on the advisory article, “Shall the voters of the Town of Brattleboro advise the Selectboard to amend the Brattleboro Town Charter to replace the Selectboard form of governance with that of a mayoral form of governance?”
If approved, the town would have to decide the details and request a charter change from the state Legislature in a process that would take at least a year. Although petition organizers say they’re just seeking public opinion, they themselves support the idea.
“Certainly to me it’s much more democratic,” Yates says. “But I give credit to anybody who’s willing to serve. It’s a thankless job and takes real commitment.”
Adds DeGray: “When you look at our system, the public at large is somewhat excluded. The question has been out there a long time. Someone’s finally taking the initiative to see if there’s support for it.”
