Charter Commission Invitation to Participate

The Charter Commission members want to know what you, the RESIDENTS of SALEM, want your town government to look like. 

Please join us on Wednesday, June 15, to share with us your wishes. We’ll be at SALEM HIGH SCHOOL’s Media Room at 7:00, to hear from you.

We also encourage you to fill in our survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/salemchartercommission

Finally, you can send an email to members of the Charter Commission at charter_commission@salemnh.gov



To help Salem’s residents be informed citizens, Charter Commission members have collected some useful info. 

I recommend that you do the following:

1.   Watch part of the video of the meeting on May 25, with a presentation by representatives from the NH Municipal Association describing the various of forms of government allowed by NH law. The presentation runs from approximately minute marker 0:8:00 to 1:05:00. (The remainder of the meeting was “housekeeping” tasks.) http://sctv-17.com/CablecastPublicSite/show/14816?channel=1

2.   Watch the video of the meeting on June 2, with a presentation from representatives from Derry, Newmarket, Bedford, and Hudson, talking about what works and doesn’t work with their town governments. The presentations run from about 0:6:30 to 1:13:40. (Again, the rest of the meeting was “housekeeping” – planning our schedule for the summer and discussing the questions for our survey). http://sctv-17.com/CablecastPublicSite/show/14818?channel=1

RECOMMENDED READING

In addition to the videos, we have a number of documents that can now be viewed at the town website’s landing page for the Charter Commission: https://www.townofsalemnh.org/charter-commission. Of special interest would be the following documents::

FORMS of GOVERNMENT:

SALEM’S CHARTER HISTORY

Here is what our town agreed to adopt as our government in 2012. This is still our current government. https://www.townofsalemnh.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif7996/f/uploads/sb2_adopted_2012.pdf

WHAT CAN BE INCLUDED IN A CHARTER?

If you have time, the information that Merrimack compiled in 2005 is still relevant. It digs deep into each consideration that needs to be addressed as a town’s charter is being written. https://www.townofsalemnh.org/charter-commission/2-nh-state-law/pages/3-matrixes-from-merrimack-2005


The above recommendations are my own, and do not necessarily represent the other Commissioners.

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