My commitments as a candidate for Charter Commission

I am Joe Sweeney and I am one of the nearly 3 dozen Salem residents running for a seat on the 9 member Charter Commission for the Town of Salem.

I led the effort to gather the signatures that placed the question of forming a charter commission on the ballot.

I think it’s important those running for Charter Commission pledge to three basic tenets that they will live up to while serving if they are elected, and if I have the honor of being elected to the commission I will pledge to do the same:

We need a Charter Commission that is transparent, accessible, and effective.

Transparency is key when it comes to governing - I have long believed that sunlight is the best disinfectant. The Charter Commission process will move quickly following the election - 3 to 4 public meetings will be held between the election and October 13th when the final report is due. The discussions and input to the Charter Commission must be transparent and all Salem residents should be able to understand, take part, and hear the conversations that are taking place. This needs to be a working body - the decisions and discussions among the members of the commission must take place during the public hearings, ideas need to be debated and considered so that Salem Residents can attend any meeting or watch any discussion on Salem Community Television. There is nothing the Charter Commission can or should do behind closed doors. I will treat any communication or conversation between myself and other members elected to the Commission that pertains to a proposed Charter as a public conversation, and share with Salem residents and submit to the Commission’s secretary copies of any emails or correspondence to be included in official Commission minutes for public consumption.

Being accessible to the citizens of Salem in this process is paramount to the success of the commission. I believe all Salem residents should be encouraged and able to participate in the process - even if they cannot make one of the public meetings or hearings. We all have so much going on in our lives - work, families, friends, and other engagements - that make attending public meetings tough for the vast majority of citizens. That’s why I am pledging to open up my social media channels and my email, if elected, to solicit and accept public comment on the process. If elected on April 26th I will use any and all time I have during the Commission meetings to read into the record comments from Salem residents that can be reflected in the meeting minutes and heard by the fellow members of the commission to ensure that as many voices are heard as possible. The opportunity to change Salem’s form and structure of government is a rare opportunity that needs to be treated as such by the members of the commission and the public; we should strive to ensure all voices are heard, not just those that might agree with my point of view or my approach to what the Charter should contain.

Third, the Charter Commission needs to be effective. 2,112 Salem Residents - over 65% of the voters who showed up - cast their ballots on March 8th to form a Charter Commission, and we now have 35 candidates filed and running for 9 seats. We will engage in public hearings, meetings, and discussions with a mission of building a proposed Charter that complies with State Law and goes on the ballot in the March 2023 election for a vote by the residents of Salem. After the work that has gone into the process, the work done by town staff in organizing and executing a special election within two months after the March elections, I believe the Commission will owe it to the Town to reach some consensus on proposing a Charter that the voters can consider next year. We cannot fail to meet this mandate from the voters of Salem - I firmly believe if Salem residents wanted no change at all to the way the Town Government is structured they would have voted down my petition article to form a Charter Commission - instead, they overwhelmingly supported it. I believe the Commission that is elected on April 26th needs to be effective and propose a charter that represents the work and deliberation done by the Commission. We owe it to the residents of Salem to give them a proposal to vote for or against.

Those are my three basic tenets to what members of the Charter Commission should pledge to live up to when they are elected to the Commission. You will notice I haven’t talked about what type of Government the Charter Commission could propose we switch to - I do sincerely want to wait for the commission to form to solicit input and build a plan that works for Salem’s future. It’s important to remember that the overarching options for Salem are limited by State Law - we can remain a town that has a 5 member board of Selectmen, we can transition to a Town Council form of Government with either 5, 7, 9, 11, or 13 members serving on the Town Council, or we could transition to a City form of government with a Mayor elected along with a City Council or Board of Alderman. We can move our elections from March to either April, May, or structure our terms of office and budget process to have elections each odd-year November (state law would preclude us from having municipal elections during the State Elections in November of each even-numbered year). We can adopt a Fiscal Year that starts our municipal budget on July 1 following the election or we can adopt a two year budget for Salem. We can keep the system of waterfalling three year terms for boards and committees in Salem or we can switch every town board and committee to two year terms where we elect everyone at the same time, just like we elect our State Government every two years. I mention all of this, not necessarily as options I would like the town to pursue but options nonetheless that are available to a Charter Commission in crafting the proposal that is sent to voters. I believe the Commission and the residents of Salem should be aware of any and all possibilities made available to us by state law when we consider what we want our town’s form of Government to look like.

Salem is a great town and I’m a proud product of our town and our public schools. I have a lot of pride in our community and believe we need a commission and a town government that works best for the residents and taxpayers of Salem, and if elected I’ll fight to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. We have so many great people who represent so many great voices in our town running for the Commission, and I would be honored to serve along many of them if the voters place their trust in me on April 26th. Please remember to vote and make your voice heard - Salem’s future is truly on the ballot this April 26th.