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The Marblehead Town Charter Committee has revised its timeline for submitting a final charter to the Select Board, pushing the deadline from January 2026 to spring 2026 while maintaining its goal of presenting the document at the May 2027 Town Meeting.
Chair Amy Drinker informed the Select Board on Oct. 29 that the committee determined at its Oct. 28 meeting that it was no longer feasible to meet the original January deadline. The revision follows committee member Sean Casey’s temporary leave from the group.
“Given the components of work left to complete, it is no longer feasible to meet the January 2026 deadline for submission of the final charter to the select board,” Drinker wrote in an update to the Independent. “The TCC’s goal remains the same: to deliver a final draft of the charter document to the select board in a timely fashion (most likely March 2026) while maintaining the quality of the established process and framework.”
The charter is a legal document that establishes the town’s government structure and defines the powers, roles and responsibilities that guide operations. Marblehead currently has no charter outlining how its government functions, according to the committee’s executive summary.
Draft B of the proposed charter has been posted online at marbleheadma.gov/town-charter-committee/. The annotated document maintains Open Town Meeting and the primacy of the Select Board’s authority in policy and operational responsibilities.
Casey remains an integral part of the committee despite his temporary leave, Drinker said. His contributions include developing charter language, providing expertise on town bylaws and Massachusetts General Law, tracking edits and version alignment, researching the town’s past practices and engaging with entities to address feedback.
“The fidelity of the charter’s language is a direct result of Sean’s role in its development and ongoing revisions,” Drinker wrote.
The committee will hold its next meeting on Dec. 11, using the time before then to assess feedback from town entities and Draft B revisions. At that meeting, members will determine their schedule for January through March 2026.
Remaining work includes reviewing feedback from charter entities, requesting clarification from town counsel on specific questions, reviewing Draft B feedback from the Collins Center (due Nov. 14), creating Draft C of the charter for counsel review and preparing a final draft for submission to the Select Board.
The proposed charter maintains Open Town Meeting and does not expand the town administrator’s role, according to the executive summary. It serves as a reference tool for residents and a resource for elected and appointed boards, commissions and committees.
Whether the charter is submitted to the Commonwealth in June 2026 or June 2027, it is likely that the Legislature would not begin its Marblehead charter review until 2027 (the new legislative session). “It is reasonable to expect that the Legislature will complete its review in time for Marblehead to conduct its townwide vote to approve the charter in June of 2028,” Drinker wrote.
To become law, the Marblehead Town Charter must be approved in three stages: Town Meeting approval in May 2027, state legislative review and approval, and a townwide vote after passage at the state level.
