Is Falmouth ready for a change in government structure

Falmouth residents interested in learning more about forms of town government and the pathways to change to a different governing structure can plan to attend a panel discussion Wednesday, May 31 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Morse Pond School Auditorium.

Organizer for the informational session, Barbara Schneider, said that she began this discussion with a smaller scale meeting in 2016 and believes it is time to revisit the discussion. “I am not saying that what we have is wrong, but I do believe we have gone too many years without considering our options since we have changed so much as a community.” In fact, according to Schneider, we last reviewed our form of government before we changed to the current organization in 1991, 32 years ago.

At the May 31 meeting, Town Clerk and long time Falmouth resident Michael Palmer will explain the different types of governments, and the methods to change to a different structure. Then three speakers, two of whom are Falmouth residents, will share their experiences with this type of change. All three worked in governments in Massachusetts towns when they switched to different governing structures so they will share their experiences, the method used for changing and their opinions about the process and change.

Schneider, serving as moderator, will then call on the audience to pose questions to the panel. “My hope is that by the end of the 90-minutes, we will have a feel for whether there is support to go forward to do a more thorough study and consider options seriously,” Schneider added.

She said that conversations began during the removal of the former town manager and intensified during the recent town manager selection process. “I purposefully waited until after the local election to announce this event because I did not want to muddy the message that this was about the election or the candidates up for Select Board positions,” she explained. “We have not taken a hard look at how much we have changed as a town, or the complex subjects we handle at Town Meeting today and their financial impacts. We need a healthy and transparent discussion to either confirm that what we have is right for our population size and our current issues, or to admit that it isn’t and then do what is necessary to move toward what is. Since it has been 32 years, this seems long overdue.”

The last time such a study was done was in the late 1980’s when Falmouth was a town of 27,960 residents and had three full-time select board members and a budget of $44.2 million. That study resulted in the creation of the Home Rule Charter with a Town administrator, and five select board members along with town meeting members elected from seven precincts.