RUMFORD – A third member of the Charter Commission has submitted his resignation.

Carlo Puiia, the town’s tax collector, submitted a letter of resignation to selectmen’s Chairman Jim Rinaldo on Wednesday, with copies for commission members.

He joins businessman Ronald Theriault and former Selectman Eugene Boivin. Theriault resigned in October, and Boivin quit last week.

The commission, which has a meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 14, in the Municipal Building, may appoint replacements for Puiia and Boivin then. At an earlier meeting, the nine-person board appointed Harrison Burns to take over Theriault’s slot.

The three said they resigned for similar reasons: Because a special election was called to make a charter amendment. That would have allowed selectmen to decide if the town manager and three others in appointed positions must reside in town.

Theriault resigned because the majority of selectmen decided to hold a special election on an amendment to the charter while the commission was in session.

He wrote in a letter to commission Chairman Walter Buotte that the action was an insult to every member of the commission.

Boivin and Puiia resigned because of their objections to a majority of commission members taking a stand on the amendment, something Puiia said was intolerable.

The election, which was held on Tuesday, resulted in the defeat of the proposed amendment that would have allowed selectmen to decide whether the town manager, sealer of weights and measures, auditor and plumbing inspector must reside in town. The people holding those positions do not.

In his letter to Rinaldo, Puiia said he believes the commission has a preset agenda for the final report it must make within nine months.

He said on Wednesday he thinks the commission may separate the three part-time, stipend positions from the full-time town manager position as they continue their work.

Buotte said Wednesday night that the separation of the positions had never come up and he had not thought about the possibility. But, he said, if someone on the commission should make a motion to separate the part-time, stipend positions from that of the full-time town manager position, he would certainly consider it.

Commission members were elected by residents or appointed by selectmen in August and charged with reviewing the 55-year-old, 28-page document and making recommendations for changes. The commission has six months remaining to devise a first draft, and nine months for presentation of the final document. Residents will then decide whether to adopt it.