Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
BRATTLEBORO — This town has decided overwhelmingly to join a growing group of Vermont municipalities seeking more control over their state-granted charters.
Residents voted 1,350-271 on Tuesday to ask the Legislature for the ability to adopt local provisions already authorized by the state for other communities.
Municipal charters form the governing framework for 60 Green Mountain cities and towns and 24 incorporated villages that together account for more than half of the state’s population. But the Vermont Constitution gives the Legislature the final say in approving and amending those documents.
“A greater degree of self-governance would allow us to identify and address issues locally without having to ask the state for permission over and over again,” Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell said in advance of Tuesday’s voting.
Springfield, Williston and Winooski voted last year to ask the state for similar charter flexibility and are awaiting state review. The growing group hopes residents’ support for their requests will spur the Legislature to approve a larger bill to form a commission to study ways to expand municipal self-governance.
In that proposal, Windham County state Sen. Jeanette White is calling for a pilot program modeled after one in West Virginia, where the Legislature — finding the effort gave communities “greater flexibility to operate in a more cost-effective, efficient and timely manner” — went on to expand it statewide.
In other local election news, Brattleboro reelected selectboard members Ian Goodnow and Daniel Quipp and added newcomer Jessica Gelter, who will replace the departing former chair, Brandie Starr.
The town also joined about two dozen other Vermont communities supporting local retail marijuana sales while defeating a call to disband the Windham Southeast School District it formed two years ago with neighboring Dummerston, Guilford and Putney.