SAUGUS — An amendment made to the town charter will require former elected officials to wait 18 months before they are hired and compensated by boards on which they previously served. The bill for the amendment was presented by State Rep. Jessica Giannino and Sen. Brendan Crighton. The legislature passed it just prior to the new year, and Gov. Maura Healey signed it into law on Jan. 10.
The new paragraph–now 6a of Article 2–reads that, “No former member of the Board of Selectmen or School Committee shall hold any compensated appointed office, position, or employment that is directly appointed by the Board of Selectmen or School Committee for which a salary or other emolument is payable from the town treasury until eighteen months following the date on which the former member’s term of office, as established by this Act, on the Board of Selectmen or School Committee has terminated.”
Peter Manoogian said that the Charter Committee, on which he served from 2007 to 2009, put together the proposal for the revision.
“The language was approved by the then attorney general,” he said. “I knew it was good language, and it’s commonplace in other communities as well. They have what’s called a cooling-off period.”
He explained that the amendment is not designed to prevent someone from seeking a certain position but to have a period of time long enough for former office holders to distance themselves from the elected office that they held.
