Submitted by Joe Stewart

The King Philip Regional High School Auditorium was packed for Wrentham’s Fall Town Meeting on November 13.  Cindy Thompson, Wrentham’s Town Clerk, noted that at 432 attendees, this town meeting had more than double the usual attendance. 

Leading up to the meeting, the warrant of 18 articles had drawn significant discussion in Facebook groups focused on the seven Charter Review articles, the two building projects (a new combined Department of Public Works & Land Use building and a replacement for the Roderick School), and the four Community Preservation Commission articles (more funding for land acquisition, funding for preserving town artifacts, and funding for weed control at Mirror Lake and Lake Archer).

The warrant and related materials are available on the town’s website, https://townofwrentham.hosted.civiclive.com/government/town_meeting.

Early in the meeting, Ed Goddard, Town Moderator, announced that because he planned to advocate on the Charter Review articles, he proposed that a temporary moderator be elected to chair debate on those articles. Leo Immonen, long-time Town Meeting member and current chair of the Conservation Commission, was elected.

As is tradition, volunteers were acknowledged, including Tristan Cornel, who received the 2023 Henry Carr Youth Volunteer of the Year award for his leadership with King Philip Cares, and the entire Wrentham 350 Committee for their work with the ongoing celebration of Wrentham’s founding 350 years ago.  

State Representative Marcus Vaughn read a citation from the State Legislature acknowledging Dr. Allan Cameron’s 10 years of service as the Superintendent of Wrentham Schools.

The first four routine articles were quickly approved under unanimous consent.

Article 5 was for $1.6M to fund “shovel-ready” plans to address Department of Public Works needs, including office space, maintenance and shop facilities, and heavy equipment storage as well as to consolidate related land use town operations including Planning, Conservation, and Building. Jeff Alberti, President of Weston & Sampson, the civil engineering firm contracted by Wrentham to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, presented their findings. After a brief discussion, voters approved the article.

Similarly, Article 6 for $1.1M to fund a comprehensive feasibility study of the options to address the Roderick School, was quickly approved following a presentation by Dr. Cameron.

And that brought Town Meeting to the articles proposed by the Charter Review Committee. Jerry McGovern, chair of the Charter Review Committee and longtime elected public servant including many years as a Selectman, introduced the charter review process and the proposed changes.

Discussion began with Article 7 but owing to confusion around the title for Kevin Sweet, currently titled Town Administrator but in the proposed Charter his title is changed to Town Manager, a decision was taken to table Article 7 and discuss Article 8.  Article 8 ultimately passed and discussion returned to Article 7.

One notable debate included former State Representative Shawn Dooley who made an impassioned argument in support of civil service. In turn, Liz Valerio, a labor attorney, spoke eloquently in opposition noting that in many respects the civil service process, tests, and evaluations are inherently biased.  

Town Manager Sweet noted that the purpose of this article is to update the charter to reflect how civil service is currently in use in Wrentham - in previous town meetings, votes to adjust Wrentham’s use of civil service had already been taken.  

Nonetheless, after further debate Article 7 was rejected.  

That led to Article 9 which proposed to change the Town Clerk from an elected position to an appointed position. Immonen was sworn in as Temporary Moderator and Goddard and others said  that the proposed change from elected boards to appointed boards was anti-democratic and tended to consolidate power in the Select Board and Town Manager.

Following substantial debate, voters rejected Article 9 and then McGovern moved to indefinitely postpone consideration of the remaining charter articles (Articles 10-14). McGovern noted that when he first became involved in town decision making, Wrentham’s budget was about $25M; today, the budget is approaching $50M and what was appropriate then is no longer adequate. He argued that while Town Meeting voters may not have had sufficient time to consider these changes, ultimately the town will need to adapt.

In quick succession, Articles 10 through 13 were postponed. During discussion on Article 14, resident Tom Brown asked what the outcome of postponing Article 14 would be. Adam Costa of Mead Talerman & Costa LLC, the town’s counsel, noted that approved articles would go into effect while rejected or postponed articles would not.  And with that, voters postponed Article 14. Thus, the Article 8 title changes for the four titles will go into effect

To wrap up Town Meeting were the four Community Preservation articles.  Articles 15 ($200,000 for future land acquisition), 16 ($27,000 for an archivist to continue cataloging and preserving Wrentham artifacts), and 17 ($35,000 for weed mitigation at Mirror Lake) were quickly approved through unanimous consent.  

Article 18 ($40,000 for weed mitigation at Lake Archer) generated some debate.  Opponents argued that it was inappropriate to provide funds to a lake with no public access. Resident Diane Glass noted that while it’s true that there’s no public access to the lake, Lake Archer is owned by the Commonwealth, it is polluted by runoff from State Route 140, and its waters flow into Lake Pearl - so, weeds from Lake Archer will eventually take hold in Lake Pearl.   

After voters approved Article 18, the meeting quickly ended.