RUMFORD — Proposed revisions to the Town Charter by the Rumford Charter Commission will be discussed at a public hearing Thursday.

The 6 p.m. session will take place just prior to the regular Select Board meeting that will follow in the Rumford Falls Auditorium.

The revisions will be voted upon on the upcoming November ballot.

“I’ve been working diligently since the November election,” Chairman Frank DiConzo said, “looking at the Charter and putting my thoughts together on what I envision we need to change — to make everybody who works for the town accountable and make sure that everyone get along, and how each department affects the other. You have to see it every day to suggest changes.”

Joining him on the nine-member Charter Commission are appointed members Jeff Gilbert and Sammie Sax, and elected members Greg Deane, Rachel Henderson, Travis Palmer, Bev Soucy, Jon Starr and Cory White.

Four of the major changes are:

• Making the tax collector and town clerk/treasurer positions appointed rather than elected. Like all other department heads, these positions become more accountable to the town manager for performance of their duties to the town. It assures continuance of proficiency. As long as the duties are performed at a high quality, the appointed individual can stay in the position until they decide to leave or retire, or unless there is need to dismiss them.

• Renaming the Finance Committee to the Budget Committee, and appointing two citizen representatives for three years. The Select Board and town manager are responsible for overseeing town procedures and finances for Rumford, and overseeing the spending throughout the year. Presently, the five additional Finance Committee members are only involved with the budget for funding requests during March and April each year. Department heads are working with the town manager to properly fund their departments and bring them forward for presentation to the Select Board for approval, which then goes to the citizens to approve at the polls, making the procedure simpler and less time consuming. Election of two citizens would be for transparency purposes only, to ask additional questions during department presentations and initiated article presentations.

• Initiated articles request change before going to vote and before review by the Select Board. As set up now, any organization can request funding, which adds to the overall budget of the town, which could lead to a tax rate increase. Requiring organizations to pursue a certain amount of signatures on a petition first, in order to bring forth to the board, would help with the decision for approving funding. The petition can be given to the requesting organization each year on July 1 following the June election, and be returned to the clerk’s office prior to the end of November each year to provide time to check signatures to make sure those signing are registered voters in Rumford.

• Library trustees and Parks Commission be reconfigured from 5 to 3 members and still be appointed. The library and parks departments should operate like all other departments, with the library director and parks foreman directly responsible for reporting and management of their departments with the town manager. The current set up inhibits better operations and accountability. The role of library trustees would be to assist the town manager when assistance may be needed regarding employees, shall establish rules and regulations for the use of the library and shall be solely responsible for the library books, materials and programming for the library after consulting with the library director. The role of the Parks Commission, as advisors to the town manager regarding employees, shall establish rules and regulations for the use of parks and recreation areas in the town after consulting with the parks foreman.

DiConzo said 71 of 430 Maine towns function under the charter system, “to guide us on what we need to do.”

“Towns want a charter because they want home rule,” he said. “There have been movements in the past that people said ‘do away with the charter.’ If you do away with the charter, then the state tells you what you can and can’t do.”

DiConzo said he believes changes for the town charter should be looked at about every five years because of the changes that take place at the state level. “We should look at it like a comprehensive plan,” he said.

At the annual poll meeting last June, voters approved establishing a Charter Commission for the purpose of revising the Municipal Charter or for the purpose of establishing a new Municipal Charter.

The town charter was established in 1951, and includes amendments approved on June 12, 2018.