Saugus to vote on staggered elections

SAUGUS – The warrant for the next Special Town Meeting has been released and one article up for a vote will be a measure seeking staggered elections for town offices in Saugus.Article 6 was submitted by the Town Meeting Charter Review Committee and seeks to make major changes to elections starting this year.According to the article, selectmen and School Committee members will hold office for three years starting with the upcoming November election. The term of the fifth-place candidate elected for both offices in November 2013 will expire at the annual town election in April 2014, while the terms of the fourth and fifth-place candidates this November will expire April 2015, and first and second place in April 2016.If the article passes Town Meeting, it will be included on the November town ballot for residents to vote on and if residents approve it, elections for town offices will effectively be moved to April.Committee member Wendy Reed said the Charter Review Committee has been meeting since the last Annual Town Meeting.?We looked at what other towns did and different proposals,” said Reed. “We really couldn?t come to a consensus on the issue. Town Meeting mandated we bring something back so the best way to go was to use the proposal that was in the proposed charter that failed. Everyone seemed to agree with that portion of it so we decided to put that forward.”Other members of the committee included School Committee Vice-Chairman Corinne Riley and Town Meeting members Edward Boesel, Kimberly Politano, Jeffrey Moses, Stephen Sweezey and Peter Rossetti.Other articles on the warrant include article 2, which seeks a $200,000 transfer to the town stabilization fund; article 3, which seeks money to lease or purchase new police cruisers; article 4, which seeks $22,500 for additional staff in the Town Clerk?s office; and article 5, which seeks to change the town charter to allow three votes from selectmen instead of four to renew the Town Manager?s contract.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].