Rockland Considers First Charter Update in 55 Years to Improve Town Operations
Proposed changes aim to clarify leadership structure, establish consistent hiring practices, and create mechanisms for long-term planning
ROCKLAND - April 22 - A committee tasked with reviewing Rockland's town charter presents significant changes to the 55-year-old document, focusing on improving efficiency and accountability in local government operations.
Richard Penney, who has served on multiple town committees including the Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen, explains the effort to modernize how the town functions.
"This is something that back in about 2018, after being involved in the town and starting to understand the challenges that we face as a town, as an organization, in trying to get things done," Penney says.
The town hired the UMASS Collins Center, which Penney describes as "the preeminent in Massachusetts of doing charters," having completed at least 125 charter reviews across the state.
The committee worked with the Collins Center for approximately 18 months, examining 10 similar communities to Rockland, including neighboring towns like Pembroke and Hanover.
One of the primary goals is addressing a fundamental question about town governance: who's in charge?
"We wanted to be able, people to answer the question, or when the question is asked, who's in charge?" Penney explains. "Right? Just a simple thing, because we don't have that answer to that."
The proposed charter aims to create a clearer organizational structure with defined responsibilities. It would establish the Board of Selectmen as the governing authority with the Town Administrator reporting to them, similar to a corporate structure.
"Take it as a corporation, right? The CEO runs the organization. In large organizations, the CEO reports to the board," Penney says. "So the Board of Selectmen is the board. The chair of the Board of Selectmen is the chair of that board. Then they delegate to the CEO, who then runs the organization."
A key change involves creating consistency in hiring practices across town departments. Currently, some boards have hiring authority while others don't, creating inconsistencies in how town employees are hired, evaluated and managed.
"We have some boards that have the ability to hire and fire. We have some boards that the charter is not clear that exactly who has the ability," Penney says. "We have some boards where they've taken that on. And then we have boards that do not do any hiring and firing."
The proposed charter would establish that the Town Administrator has final approval on all hires, with department heads handling hiring for positions under them. This would ensure all employees go through proper vetting, have job descriptions, and receive regular performance reviews.
Penney points out that the town has faced numerous wrongful termination lawsuits because of inadequate personnel management.
"There have been a multitude of wrongful termination cases where we have lost. And in each and every case, we don't have a personnel file," he says. "In the state of Massachusetts, unless you have all your T's crossed and your I's dotted, you're going to lose every time, even if you've got a crappy employee."
The charter would also update the town's recall process, which is currently so cumbersome it's effectively unusable. The new process would allow for collecting signatures similar to how candidates gather signatures when running for office.
"We learned firsthand that we, while technically we could recall someone, it is not viable, because you're not going to have a notary," Penney explains. "So you would have to have someone signing that with the notary right there for 500 people."
Another significant change involves facilities management. Currently, department heads are responsible for maintaining their own buildings, even though that's not their area of expertise.
"Our council liaison, Julie, she's responsible for the building. Our librarian is responsible for the library. Chief Duffey got a lesson. He's responsible for maintaining that fire station and putting these projects together," Penney says. "It's not what their core competencies are."
The charter would make the town administrator responsible for all town buildings, potentially leading to the creation of a facilities manager position to oversee maintenance and long-term planning for town properties.
Penney cites examples of inefficient building maintenance, including replacing automatic flush mechanisms at the senior center after just 14 months at a cost of $5,000, when proper maintenance would have cost less than $100.
The proposal also includes provisions for regular review of town governance documents, mandating charter reviews every 10 years and bylaw reviews every five years.
"What this does, hopefully, is as the world changes, as the town changes, as the needs change, that we can start to be more proactive versus more reactive," Penney says. "Not wait 55 years and it's like, 'hey, yeah, we should probably do this.'"
The committee made changes to last year's proposal based on resident feedback, particularly regarding elected versus appointed positions. While the committee believes appointed positions would be more effective, they decided to keep currently elected positions as they are.
"As much as personally I think we're better off when appointed, we heard what the residents said, and then we went back and looked at this again," Penney says.
If approved at town meeting, the charter changes would take 10 to 14 months to implement after state review. The warrant is available here.