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By Robert Rosen
Hometown Weekly Staff
They say people don’t show up to the voting booths for local elections, but on a cold, rainy day in Wellesley on Tuesday, March 15, 4,944, or 30.39 percent of registered voters, turned out to the polls to vote on whether Wellesley should change their form of government to a town manager form of government that would give that individual the authority to oversee all town departments, rather than the current form that has town boards that have department heads that supervise and evaluate their employees.
After months of discussion, including many public information sessions and two different Town Meetings to discuss issues related to the change, 2,823 (57.09 percent) voters cast a “no” vote, crushing the hopes of the 2,121 Wellesley residents who voted “yes” for the change.
Voters against the proposal felt that the change would’ve given too much power to one person, despite the fact that many towns have a government structured like that. Many “yes” voters felt that this was an opportunity for consistency in Wellesley government as they felt that many boards operate differently based on who their director is. In addition, there was a feeling by many that there have been too many people making decisions and that can often lead to difficulty in effectively coming to an agreement at meetings.
But the voters on the “no” side ultimately won the debate, meaning the Wellesley government will remain the same, with an Executive Director of Government Services and several boards and departments, not to mention the Board of Selectmen, who will look to replace current Executive Director Hans Larsen, who will be retiring this year.
Next up for Wellesley government is Town Meeting, which begins Monday, March 28.
Robert Rosen is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at news@hometownweekly.net and followed on Twitter at @roberterosen.
