The newly formed Charter Revision Commission met for the first time on Thursday, January 20, to set their meeting schedule, elect officers and set a date for their first public hearing — the kick-off event that will start their 15-month evaluation of the town’s guiding document.

Town attorney David Grogins gave a general overview of what the Commission should be doing over the next several months.

“The appointing authority, the Board of Selectmen [BOS], has commenced the process of doing a charter review and has appointed you nine people to the body to undertake the process,” Grogins explained. The BOS “has given a limited charge to the board, which you’re not obligated to adopt.”

Overall, in Grogins’ opinion Brookfield’s charter is largely sufficient for the needs of the town — “I don’t see anything horrible in the charter that really stands out or causes problems,” he said — however, “Brookfield is going through a transition period,” he said. “You’re getting into the range of not a small town anymore and there are larger issues,” such as the composition of the BOS, the potential need for a town planner or manager or an entirely different form of local government.

At the end for their 15-month charge, the Commission will submit a report to the BOS including a list of recommendations to be put to town wide referendum. The Selectmen can either accept the recommendations, all or in part, or reject them outright, however they cannot make changes to any of the recommendations that will go to ballot.

The BOS set forth eight preliminary items for the Commission to consider, though they are an independent body that can take up any issues they like. The eight recommendations from the BOS are:

1. Inclusion of advisory questions on the annual town budget vote;
2. Roles and possible consolidation of various boards and commissions where appropriate. The Selectmen are particularly interested in the Commission examining a merger of the Planning and Zoning Commissions into a single entity;
3. Number and organization of the Board of Selectmen;
4. Election of the First Selectman as a separate ballot from the Board of Selectmen;
5. Terms of office for the Selectmen;
6. Overall form of government;
7. The terms and timing of appointed officers of the town;
8. Various technical and language changes. 

Before the Commission can undertake any of these matters — or any others they wish to tackle — they must first hold a public hearing to get input from the community on what things they would like to see changed in the town charter.

This initial public hearing has been set for Thursday, February 3, at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.

After that, the Commission plans to meet twice monthly, on the first and third Thursdays, as they get started.

The members: Greg Dembowski, John Berger, Ron Jaffe, Mark Labadia, Larry Miller, Dorothy Miles, Joni Park, David Propper and Peter Scalzo chose Miller to act as chair of the Commission, Park as vice chair and elected Miles as their secretary.