RUMFORD — Seven Charter Commission members went through three sections of the document Tuesday night and voted on proposed revisions.

What they didn’t get to on their agenda was addressing a petition-proposed spending cap that selectmen and the town attorney last year deemed should be a charter matter.

Co-Chairman Chris Brennick said after the meeting that they deferred that to another meeting to await consultation with town attorney Jennifer Kreckel.

They did, however, address Articles 18, 19 and the first part of 20, which deal with the town manager, business and financial provisions and vacancies in elected offices, respectively.

One issue was whether the town manager should be a resident of Rumford.

“The residency requirement is obviously an issue,” Brennick said. “Should we take it out?”

Member and secretary Rick Greene answered affirmatively.

“In this day and age, the main thing for our town is to get the best town manager we can get,” Greene said. “If he or she has to travel 30 miles to get to work, that’s his or her business. My fear is we might lose a candidate who would do a good job, because of the residency requirement.”

Co-Chairman Kevin Saisi said the person leading the town needs to be in touch with it and advocate for it.

“This requirement limits the pool of applicants,” Brennick said. “It might be good to have someone that doesn’t have any skin in the game. I think the person should be involved in our town.”

Greene motioned to strike the residency requirement. It was seconded.

Member Amy Bernard, who is the town manager of Paris and a resident of Rumford, said she didn’t think a town manager has to live in a community to be invested in its future.

Member Eric Davis said he believes the town manager should live in the River Valley as defined by the local chamber of commerce.

Greene’s motion was defeated 3-4, so that section of the charter remains intact.

The next discussion came on Section 3 of the Powers and Duties of the town manager.

Bernard said the person authoring selectmen minutes needs to sign them to validate them. Currently, Town Manager John Madigan records the minutes, and brings them before the board at the next meeting to vote if they are complete or corrections need to be made prior to a vote to accept them.

Brennick said selectmen are responsible for the minutes and should sign off on them.

Greene said it wasn’t necessary to have it in the charter because selectmen supervise the town manager.

“One of the things we’re tasked with is to make the charter less invasive,” Greene said.

He motioned to remove Section 3. That was when the commission realized none of them knew if selectmen and/or the town manager sign the minutes as is done in other towns.

They voted 5-2 to approve Greene’s motion.

They also had a problem with the Disbursement of Funds in Article 19, Section 6. That states: “No money shall be paid out of the town treasury except by order signed by at least a majority of the Board of Selectpersons.”

Saisi said the board’s current practice on weeks when they don’t meet is to have one board member go to the Town Office and sign such documents as payrolls.

“That’s not legal per the charter,” he said.

Member Michael Peter Chase, who goes by his middle name, said that had they not done this in the past, the town would have been unable to pay bills. After much discussion, the commission tabled it to ask attorney Kreckel and Madigan for clarification on whether current practice is legal.

Saisi and Bernard objected to Article 20, which gives selectmen authority to appoint people to elected positions should there be a vacancy in any elective office, other than the town clerk-treasurer or tax collector-constable.

They said it allows selectmen to appoint someone to their own board unless the vacancy happens not more than 90 days prior to the next annual town election.

Bernard motioned to change 90 days to 180 days and to specify selectmen. Greene preferred keeping the 90 days, while Bernard said it isn’t right for selectmen to be appointing people who should go through the elective process. She amended her motion removing “annual” so that it read “town election meeting” and deleted four words at the end of the sentence.

A 7-0 vote approved including the Board of Selectmen in the article so they couldn’t appoint a replacement. However, following more discussion about trying not to have several special elections, the change to 190 days was defeated, 2-5.

Bernard made a second motion, reducing the 180 days to 120, which was approved 6-0 with Greene abstaining. He said it needed more scrutiny.

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