At the 2012 LWVN Annual Meeting on May 30, 2012, the LWVN membership voted to initiate a “campaign to collect sufficient signatures for a petition to place the question of whether to elect a Charter Commission* on the ballot at the November 2013 municipal election.”
Here are several documents with information about the petition campaign:
- Charter Commission Initiative Proposal 05_30_2012 presented at Annual Meeting, May 30, 2012
- LWVN Charter Campaign Press Release, June 2, 2012
- LWVN Letter to the Editor, Newton TAB, June 13, 2012
- LWVN Letter to the Editor, Newton TAB, October 17, 2012
- LWVN Op Ed, Newton TAB, October 24, 2012
- LWVN Interview with Newton Patch, October 25, 2012
- LWVN Op Ed, Newton TAB, December 12, 2012
The League held a signature drive on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6, 2012. We collected more than 2,500 signatures. Combined with the approximately 1,800 signatures that were collected by another group a few years ago, we are about half-way to our goal.
Please help us with this historic effort to improve Newton’s governance. We are continuing to collect signatures at various locations and events around Newton.
Thank you,
The League of Women Voters of Newton
*A charter commission is a 9-member, elected body that serves for 18 months and proposes changes to a city or town’s form of government, including such things as the size of the city council (our Board of Aldermen), term lengths, term limits, or at-large vs. ward representatives. Newton’s last charter commission was elected in 1971 and brought historic improvements to Newton’s governance.
On our website, you can also find information about the 2009-2010 LWVN Charter Study, and an interview with the late Florence Rubin. Florence Rubin was president of LWVN when the last Newton Charter Commission was elected, in 1969, and also served as chair of the 1970-1971 Charter Commission.
For more information, please email charter@lwvnewton.org.