KENNEBUNK – The Kennebunk Select Board held a workshop on Tuesday, June 23 to discuss the possibility of amending the Kennebunk Town Charter. Town Attorney Ben McCall from Drummond Woodsum provided a detailed legal briefing.
The discussion ranged from procedure (the steps and timeline to get an amendment to the ballot) to the specific elements of the charter that might be revised. McCall had reviewed a draft document relating to the recall of elected officials prior to the workshop. According to Chair Miriam Whitehouse, it was an “extensively rewritten” version of the 2024 proposed charter Article 4.3.
There are two types of changes to charters – revisions and amendments. McCall believes that based on recent Maine Supreme Judicial Court rulings, the draft recall provisions that he reviewed would qualify as amendments. He said that revisions usually address a “fundamental change in the nature of government.” As recall provisions already exist in the Kennebunk Charter, changes to them would fall into the category of amendments.
McCall made it clear that the board is up against the clock if they are aiming for the November 2026 election. Formal proposals would have to be prepared in time for a public hearing by early September in order to prepare ballots for November.
Approval of proposed amendments would require participation of 30% of the voters in the last gubernatorial election and a simple majority would be required for the amendments to pass. McCall noted that if the process is delayed to June 2027, the 30% hurdle might be difficult to achieve.
Having dealt with procedure, the discussion moved to possible targets for amendment in addition to recall provisions. Board Member Lisa Pratt suggested that Article V of the existing charter, the budget process, also deserved consideration, specifically the length of the budget process and the specific responsibilities of the budget board.
Board Member Nedeau asked whether the amendment process would provide the opportunity for a broad “sweep” to clean up grammatical errors and typos.
McCall responded that there is a wide latitude for the board to propose any number of amendments. They could decide whether to wrap them into a single amendment or whether to split them out into separate ballot questions. He noted that the final decision would have to be a “tactical” one. An “up or down” vote on the whole package might involve risk – the risk being that wrapping everything into a single package might cause voters to reject it because they disapproved of only one element of the package.
There was a sidebar discussion about whether RSU 21 board members could be excluded from recall. McCall’s opinion was that according to recent court rulings, they are elected officials subject to recall but that an amendment to the charter could limit the recall provisions to the select board.
Kennebunk’s last charter commission sat from 2022 to 2024. Their proposed charter constituted a complete overhaul of the existing one. However, the most significant proposal was a change of form of government from select board to town council. It was defeated in November 2024 by a vote of 65% to 35%.
Three members of the former charter commission (Christian Babcock, Stephen Sayers and Janice Vance) attended the workshop. They had prepared the draft document that McCall reviewed. After reworking by the board, a final version of that proposal is expected to be attached to the board’s July 23 agenda.
A video of the workshop is available on the town website.
The current town charter can be found at:
https://www.kennebunkmaine.us/DocumentCenter/View/295/Town-Charter-2022-06-14
