Granville Voters Veto
Town Charter Change
By Martha Slater

By a decisive margin, voters in the town of Granville turned down a proposed change to the town charter Tuesday, Jan. 9.

An Australian ballot vote resulted in a 42-18 defeat of article one, which proposed that Granville voters be allowed "to elect a town clerk who is not a legally qualified voter in the town of Granville, but is a legally qualified voter in the towns of Hancock, Rochester, Stockbridge, Pittsfield, Warren or Waitsfield."

Article 2, which proposed the same change in qualifications for a town treasurer, was also defeated, 41-19.

Town Clerk Kathy Werner noted that the 60 voters who cast ballots were fewer than one third of the town’s 197 registered voters.

Over the past six weeks, several hearings were held to discuss the matter, generating lively discussions.

Granville selectboard chair Norm Arseneault said his "whole aim in proposing the change was to have professional and accurate reporting of the town’s finances, including town and school taxes, expenditures, etc." He pointed out that the proposed charter change left the position an elective one, but gave voters a broader array of candidates to choose from.

The interest in a charter change came after a difficult time in filling the office. Last March, when the previous town clerk had moved out of town, the selectboard received three letters of interest, but by Town Meeting had only one. Michael Cunningham was elected, but resigned in November. Werner was then appointed by the selectboard to serve until Town Meeting in March.

When Arseneault spoke with The Herald Wednesday morning, he was disappointed, but philosophical.

"I’m pleased that we proceeded through the process and the voters of Granville were permitted to vote on this proposal," he said. "There were a number of people who didn’t want us to even vote on this and just wanted to drop the whole thing."

Arseneault added that he was also grateful for "the educational process that went on here. People now know that the job of the town clerk and town treasurer is becoming more and more complicated as the years go by, and if it’s not done correctly, it puts a tremendous amount of stress on the selectboard to try to ‘backfill’ all the time. I don’t think that many people recognized that before."

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