Should Wenham's Town Clerk Be Elected or Appointed?

One of the questions that Wenham voters will decide this spring will be whether to keep the town clerk position in the hands of voters or make it an appointed position.

Article 7 at the Annual Town Meeting will ask voters whether they want to make the town clerk an appointed position hired by the Board of Selectmen or keep it in the hands of voters on the ballot.

The measure will go before both town meeting voters and be on the ballot at the town election on April 11. It requires a majority in both instances to pass.

Town Counsel Paul Weaver said state law allows any position except the Board of Selectmen and School Committee to be appointed.

The Board of Selectmen recommend making the position appointed. Chairman Molly Martins said that it is one of the "last vestiges" of electing town employees.

Weaver, who served on the Town Government Study Committee, said the committee agreed that the town clerk should be an appointed position because the committee felt that all town staff positions should meet professional qualifications and there should be continuity.

Town Clerk Trudy Reid said that she feels the position should stay as an elected position, in response to a question at the League of Women Voters candidate forum.

"I'd like to see the position stay elected," Reid said at the forum, noting that an appointed town clerk would not need to be a town resident. As a town resident, the clerk is more involved and connected.

Additionally, an elected town clerk answers to the voters and not the Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator, Reid said.

Reid is on the town election ballot, too, this year, seeking another one-year term.

If the Article 7 passes, a clerk could be appointed anytime after the election, Weaver told the Board of Selectmen.

Article 9 at Town Meeting, and again at the town election, will ask whether voters want to make the town clerk position a three-year term rather than a one-year term.

If voters decide to make it an appointed position and also to extend the length of the term to three years, Weaver said the move to make it an appointed position would supersede the vote to extend it to a three-year term.

The article to extend the term to three-years is on the ballot through the citizens petition process. Weaver said he understands the push to have it on the ballot less frequently because the clerk needs to collect signtures each year while other offices serve for three-year terms. But in the case of town clerk - a "single actor office" - if there is a problem in the position a three-year term may leave the town with nearly a three-year wait to deal with the problem.

"There won't be a thing the town could do about it until the next election comes up," Weaver said.

On the other hand, it would simply make "a perfectly benign position" into a three years, Weaver said. And before Reid, the town has has two long serving clerks.

"We expect our clerks to serve decades and not years so why put them through (collecting nomination signatures) every year," Weaver said.

The Board of Selectmen took no position on the measure to extend the length of the clerk position.