ADAMS, Mass. — The General Government Review Committee officially began its review of the town's charter on Wednesday, as members debated the structure of the annual town meeting and the Finance Committee. 

 

Community Paradigm Associates consultant Bernard Lynch led the group through discussions after showing a work plan at the committee's last meeting. When discussing town meeting, the group debated the number of town meeting members, the merit of representative town meeting, precincts and the length of the moderator's term. 

 

The group at large was generally unsure how many members town meeting should have. Currently, there are 10 vacancies among the 150 available seats, and several more were vacant before the May town election. 

 

Committee member Virginia Duval said Adams has a similar number of registered voters as when representative town meeting began in Adams in 1937, at around 6,200. She said if they lower the number of town meeting members, it should not be by many. 

 

"Probably of all the topics that are on here, this is the one I feel strongest about ... I think an issue that we should look at is communicating to people that there's openings," she said. 

 

Member Leah Thompson thinks there would be more competition for town meeting seats if there were fewer available. 

 

"I guess I'm interested to know what a healthy, functioning town meeting looks like," she said. "Is it one that changes? One that young people become a part of?" 

 

Duval also noted language in the charter that references a chair of a precinct, who would be responsible, she said, for filling town meeting member vacancies and ensuring members attend. She and others on the committee said having a chair and precinct meetings could help town meeting participation. 

 

"That's something that I think, generally speaking, no one knows about," she said. "And so I think, if it's going to remain there, then we ought to communicate it to people, and we ought to do it." 

 

The committee also discussed whether the town should even continue with representative town meeting. Lynch said representative town meeting is becoming increasingly uncommon in the state. 

 

"The last town to move to a representative town meeting was the town of Chelmsford, where I was when it happened in 1989 with their charter," he said. "Since then, no community has gone to representative town meeting." 

 

The group created a list of benefits of representative town meeting compared to an open town meeting, and were largely in favor of keeping it. Committee member George Haddad said an open town meeting risks a small group of people having too much power. 

 

"A well organized group could be in the minority but could be very powerful in an open town meeting," he said. "And could drive the issue, that maybe the entire town is not in favor of, and it's going to get passed." 

 

Chair Donald Sommer said those who want an open town meeting could also become town meeting members if they want to get involved with the town. 

 

The group was also generally favorable to having more than just one annual town meeting. Town Administrator Jay Green said multiple town meetings could help town employees more easily plan throughout the year. 

 

On the Finance Committee, most of the group felt it was too big and should be smaller. Adams is one of only a few communities in the state with a finance committee of its size. 

 

Finance Committee Chair and committee member Carol Cushenette said, despite the committee working well recently, she feels there are too many members. 

 

"It's hard to get all 15 of them all the time ... We have a really pretty good Finance Committee right now," she said. "The composition of the Finance Committee, I think, is good. It's a really good blend of young and older people that have been there and some newer people. If it wasn't that, it's hard to get 15 interested, engaged people." 

 

Lynch noted that none of these discussions are final and the group can and likely will have to continue debating some topics at future meetings. 

 

"Again, nothing is carved in stone," he said. "We can always revisit this if we decide."