Burlington Government Review Receives Grant Funding

Burlington is the recipient of a grant from the Commonwealth's Community Compact Cabinet for the purposes of reviewing Burlington's government structure and streamlining the documents that form the basis of the town's government.

The question of government review and/or restructure has been kicking around at the Select Board's strategic meetings and in other pockets of town government for years, and Assistant Town Administrator, John Danizio, was able to secure a grant from the state office charged with enhancing collaboration with its 351 municipalities.

The town has chosen UMass Boston's Collins Center for Public Management to lead this work, which will begin with the formation of a Government Review Committee. The Center's Patricia Lloyd laid out the work of the Committee, recommending the town choose between 5 and 11 community members with a variety of backgrounds.

The Committee would work together for 12-18 months, meeting twice a month to study the town's governance in-depth, review best practices from across the Commonwealth, and draft a charter, a Special Act, or some other form of recommended organizational changes. The purpose of this work would be to clearly define the government's structure and duties, as well as the elected boards and committees and election processes.

"Burlington currently operates under a patchwork of general laws, special acts, bylaws, and Town Meeting rules," said Lloyd, and the current Special Act, which has been amended several times, only defines the legislative branch of the town's government. A charter, analogous to a town constitution, would be a more complete document, a rulebook for how the town is to be run. In 2019, Lloyd said, the state recommended adopting a charter that clearly delineates government structure and "documents elected positions, boards, and committees."

The Select Board responded enthusiastically to the idea, with many Members saying they'd like to look at how to streamline operations to eliminate redundancy and enhance communication and collaboration among departments. In the end, they voted 5-0 to support the work with the Collins Center.

Public input will be gathered as a part of this process, and once the draft charter, Special Act, or other document is complete, the Select Board will have the opportunity to edit the document before it's sent to Town Meeting for a vote. If Town Meeting and the State Legislature both vote favorably, the charter would then likely be sent to a local ballot for a town-wide vote before being officially adopted.

The mission of the Collins Center, said Director Michael Ward, is "to provide technical assistance to public entities on management challenges," and they've worked with around 75% of the state's municipalities on some level or organizational or management challenge. This isn't the first time Burlington has worked with them; the town contracted the Collins Center for a communications study back in 2023. To that end, Ward and Lloyd said they'll collaborate with the town administration to develop an outreach plan to build the Committee and solicit public input throughout the process.

Look for communication from the town about opportunities to become involved in shaping the future of the town's government through the Burlington government review.