I took the existing copy of the Town Charter, inserted a copy of the Governor's markup for the section changing the vote to November, then setup bookmarks for the pdf that match the table of contents. Well, it sorta matches the table of contents. There are a few places where the Town's table of contents for the charter doesn't match what is actually in the charter.
This should make it a lot easier for those of you who are using this as a way to look up information. However, let me remind you that while the Charter gives certain powers to the Mayor and Town Council, the Town Code then takes those powers and distributes them to others, well, one other, the Town Manager.
The Town Charter puts the burden of doing these things squarely upon the shoulders of the Town Council and the Town Manager. In giving those responsibilities to the Town Manager, the Town Council & Mayor DO NOT give up accountability. They are accountable for how the Town Manager performs. The Town Council and Mayor have a responsibility to followup, to audit, to monitor, and anything else necessary to insure that the tasks that they have delegated to the Town Manager are being performed properly. Should they find that this is not being done, then they have a right and a responsibility to make the necessary changes to correct the problems. This includes actions up to and including removal of the Town Manager from his position. The Town Manager works under a year to year contract and all that is really involved is for the council to vote against reinstating his contract again.
That said, once again I will point out that it is the responsibility of Town Council and Mayor to monitor the Town Manager's performance. If they are not doing this, that is not a problem that would go away with removal of the Town Manager. It would simply establish the dynamics whereby similar problems would lead to discontent with any future Town Managers.
Over and over again, in the minutes, at the Town Council meetings, and in discussions with citizens, I have heard where problems have been brought to Town Council's attention, the problem has been referred to the Town Manager, sometimes (not very often) a followup question asking in the problem was resolved was asked, and the answer was "Yes". Then, months, and sometimes years later, the problem is again brought forward with citizens asking when the issue is going to be fixed.
This would indicate that there is no index of problems/complaints with documentation noting actions taken by the Town to correct or review the situation, measures taken (or not taken), and verification with the complainant that the issue has been resolved. However, since they are required by law to keep just such a record and to hold complaints in an active file until they are resolved, there must be one somewhere. Obviously, there is no verification by the Town Council other than to ask the Town Manager. It might be a nice step for Town Council to start something new and do followup with citizens to see if things are corrected to the satisfaction of citizens for a change.