Orange residents would keep a strong voice in town government

A proposed charter for Orange, Massachusetts, would put the town’s government into a single, detailed rulebook. It reincorporates Orange as a body politic and corporate within its current or future boundaries, and it says the town is adopting a home rule charter to guide local government.

The document is written to do more than rename offices. It defines how power flows through town meeting, the select board, and the town manager. It also says the charter should be read broadly in favor of the town, which gives local officials more room to act unless something in state law or the charter says otherwise.

That kind of clarity can matter in ordinary town life. A charter tells residents who votes on budgets, who carries out the work between meetings, and which boards or officials are responsible for specific jobs. In a small town, those details can shape how fast decisions move and how easy they are to understand.

Town power is read broadly

One of the charter’s clearest statements is about the town’s overall authority. It says Orange shall possess, exercise, and enjoy all powers possible under the constitution and laws of Massachusetts, as fully as if each power were written out one by one. That is a broad grant of authority, not a narrow one.

The charter also says the town may cooperate with other public bodies. It could work jointly or by contract with other municipalities, with agencies or divisions of the commonwealth, with other states, or with the federal government, so long as constitutional and statutory rules allow it.

In plain language, that means the town is not being boxed into a tiny list of permitted actions. The charter points in the opposite direction. It tells readers to assume town powers are broad unless a specific limit exists. That can matter when Orange is trying to solve problems that do not stop at town lines, such as shared services or regional projects.

Open town meeting stays at the center

The charter keeps open town meeting at the heart of local lawmaking. It says the legislative powers of the town are exercised by town meeting, and that it is open to all registered voters in Orange. That is the setting where residents can vote on major financial and policy questions directly.

Town meeting would retain control over operating budgets, capital improvement budgets, bond issues, and other financial proposals. It would also have the general powers usually given to town meeting under Massachusetts law. That makes the meeting more than a public forum. It remains the place where the town’s biggest spending choices are made.

The charter adds practical rules to keep that process moving. A quorum requires at least 75 registered voters. Annual town meeting would be held on the second Monday of May, unless town bylaws say otherwise. Special town meetings could be called by the select board, and the board would have to call one if enough registered voters request it in writing.

The charter also requires town meeting articles that involve spending to go first to the finance committee. Articles involving planning, zoning, subdivision control, land acquisition, conservation, sewer line extensions, and other matters under a board’s jurisdiction must also be reviewed by the relevant board, committee, or commission before town meeting votes on them. That builds a layer of review into the process, which can help residents hear recommendations before they make a decision.

The select board becomes the executive branch

The select board would be Orange’s main executive body. The charter says all executive powers of the town, except as otherwise provided, are vested in the select board. The board would have five members elected at large for overlapping three-year terms.

Its job is not limited to passing along paperwork. The board would control town affairs by recommending major courses of action to town meeting and by presenting reports on general bylaws listed in the warrant. It would also adopt written policies and procedures for its own work, the town manager’s work, and the work of other officers, boards, and commissions under its jurisdiction.

Those policies would have to be put in place within six months of the appointment of a town manager and reviewed after each annual town election. If there is a conflict between those policies and the charter, the charter wins. That gives the town a clear hierarchy, which can reduce arguments over who sets the rules.

The select board also gets appointment power. It would appoint the town manager, three members of the board of registrars of voters, five members of the zoning board of appeals, and three associate members of that board, along with election officers as needed. The charter also gives the board authority to fill some vacancies through the process described in the document and in state law.

The town manager runs daily operations

The town manager is the person in charge of day-to-day administration. The charter says the manager is the chief administrative officer of Orange and is directly responsible to the select board for coordinating and administering all town affairs under the board’s jurisdiction.

The job is meant to be full time. The manager could not run for or hold elective office while serving. The manager would attend select board meetings unless excused, keep the board informed about departmental operations and other matters of concern, and make recommendations as needed.

A major part of the role is oversight. The manager would supervise the divisions of finance and administration, public safety, and public services, as well as the departments of highway, parks and public spaces, cemetery, sanitation, tree warden, water, and sewer and wastewater. If Orange later creates a division of public works, those departments would move under that structure.

The charter also gives the manager broad administrative tools. Subject to select board approval, the manager could establish, reorganize, consolidate, or abolish departments, boards, commissions, committees, offices, or agencies under their supervision unless general law says otherwise. The manager would also serve as chief procurement officer and could hire or delegate procurement authority in line with state law. For residents, that means the charter places a lot of the town’s everyday machinery in one professional office, but keeps that office accountable to the elected select board.

Elected offices, schools, and other local boards

The charter does not leave every local function in the hands of the select board or the town manager. It keeps a long list of elected town offices and boards, including the town clerk, moderator, board of library trustees, board of health, water commission, cemetery commission, housing authority, elementary school committee, the town’s members of the Mahar regional school committee, Soldiers’ memorial trustees, and constables.

It also describes how some of those bodies work. Library trustees would administer and operate the town library, including supervising employees, acquiring materials, and setting library rules. The housing authority would include members appointed in different ways and would carry the powers given to it under state law, town bylaws, town meeting votes, and the charter.

The school committees have a budget role too. The Mahar regional school committee and the Orange elementary school committee are expected to send their adopted budgets to the town manager by February 1 each year, so the manager can weigh those requests against the town budget. That gives the town a way to line up school spending with the rest of municipal finances.

The charter also touches vacancies and conflicts of interest. In some cases, if an elected town board seat opens up, the select board and the remaining board members would fill it until the next regular town election. And during a person’s term, and for a year after it ends, they generally could not accept an appointed paid town position within that board’s jurisdiction. That is designed to limit self-dealing and keep roles separate.

A charter that is easier to read

The preamble says Orange is adopting the charter to reaffirm the customary and traditional liberties of local government and to take the fullest advantage of home rule under Massachusetts law. It also says the document is meant to be gender nonspecific. References to masculine gender are intended to include both masculine and feminine gender.

That language may sound small compared with budgets or executive power, but it is part of the same goal. The charter is trying to make the structure of town government more legible. It tells residents where to go with concerns, who has authority to act, and how public decisions move from discussion to vote to administration.

For a town government, that kind of clarity is more than cosmetic. It can help a resident understand why a matter belongs at town meeting instead of in front of the select board, or why the town manager can handle one issue but not another. It can also help town employees and boards know where their own authority begins and ends.

At its core, the charter makes a simple promise. Orange’s government should be open to voters, organized around clear responsibilities, and broad enough to handle local business without constant confusion. The document spells that out in a way that leaves less to guesswork than many local systems do.