Mayor hopefuls differ on charter

By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger

The two candidates for mayor differ on what should happen to the document that created the very seat they are seeking.

The document, the town charter, was adopted in 1999 and will come up for review in 2009. The next mayor will have influence over whether it changes and, if so, how. The mayor will appoint five of the nine members of a commission that is to be formed every 10 years to review the charter.

The town’s governing document changed Weymouth’s form of government from town meeting/selectmen to mayor/town council.

Candidate Sue Kay said she would, if elected, push for changing the charter so the school committee and mayor would not have to submit budget proposals as early as they do now, and so the town council would have the power to approve the mayor’s choices of people to represent Weymouth on the board overseeing the redevelopment of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station.

“I believe in and will work towards these three major changes to the charter,” Kay said.

Colin McPherson supports pushing back the school department budget deadline. He also said he would like to see a check on the mayor’s power to increase the trash fee without town council approval.

McPherson said he is against giving the town council approval power over appointments to the board of directors of South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp.

McPherson, currently one of Weymouth’s two representatives on the board, said the mayor should have sole discretion in the filling of Tri-Town seats, which he said “right now is probably one of the most important positions other than the mayor.”

“If you make that a political appointment, I think that will lead to all kinds of problems,” McPherson said.

McPherson, who has 4½ years left in his current Tri-Town term, said the job requires very specific skills.

“I think it would have to be someone with a professional background who understands finances, someone who has kind of a broad background in development and finance,” he said.

Kay, a town councilor, said requiring council approval would be more democratic.

“Only through the council are the people heard,” Kay said. “The people should be able to, through the council, steer (the Tri-Town appointments) in the direction that they feel will give Weymouth a fair shake.”

Weymouth’s charter requires the council to approve mayoral government appointments, but the Tri-Town seats are not considered town government positions.

While they differ on Tri-Town, the candidates agree that the school committee has too little time to draft a budget.

The committee has until March to prepare the next year’s budget, even though state-aid figures critical to their calculations are not clear for months after that. This leads to a series of revisions after a “final” budget has been submitted.

“They’re submitting a budget when we don’t know what our local aid is,” McPherson said. “I don’t think that makes sense.”

Kay said the mayor should also have more time to draft a budget for the entire town. It is submitted to town council in the first week of April.

“The mayor’s budget, I would look to delay that so we have a better handle,” Kay said. “That way we’re not supplementing, supplementing. Every year we’ve had to supplement the budget.”

Kay said she did not originally support changing Weymouth’s form of government, though she ran for mayor during the first election for the post.

“I loved the town meeting form of government,” said Kay, who was a selectman. “When the charter was voted in, I came on board and supported it right away. It wasn’t that I didn’t support the charter, I favored the town meeting form of government. Definitely the new form of government is more efficient.”

Jack Encarnacao may be reached at jencarnacao@ledger.com.