Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Except as provided in section nine, this act shall not limit any charter adoption or revision provisions otherwise allowed by the Constitution of the Commonwealth or by any general or special law including without limitation the provisions of section six of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws applicable to the town and chapter thirty-four A of the General Laws applicable to the county.

SECTION 2. An election shall be held in the town and county of Nantucket in conformity with the provisions of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws whenever consolidated town-county charity procedures are authorized by a petition signed by at least fifteen percent of the registered voters of the town at the preceding biennial state election.

Within thirty days of receipt of certification by the board of registrars of voters that a petition contains sufficient valid signatures, the board of selectmen shall by order, provide for submitting the question of adopting a charter to the voters of the town, and for the election of a charter commission, at the first annual town meeting for the election of town officers, held on or after the adoption of the order. The question submitted to the voters shall be: "Shall a commission be elected to frame respective charters for the Town of Nantucket and Nantucket County, or a charter for either or a combined charter for both ".

SECTION 3. A charter commission shall consist of nine registered voters of the town, nominated and elected in conformity with the provisions of section six of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws.

SECTION 4. The organization and operations of the charter commission shall be in conformity with sections six to nine, inclusive, of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws stating specific procedures for the election of commission members, the organization and functioning of the commission and for its holding of public hearings. The county as well as the town shall permit the charter commission to consult with and obtain advice and information from its officers and employees during ordinary working hours. The final report of the charter commission shall be filed as said chapter forty-three B provides and shall additionally be filed with the county clerk who shall distribute it to all elected county officials, to the county's legislative or delegation, and the state secretary.

SECTION 5. If a charter for the town or county, or both, is adopted, it may subsequently be revised hereunder in conformity with the provisions of sections ten and eleven of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws.

SECTION 6. The charter commission may make any of the recommendations pursuant to section twelve of chapter thirty-four A of the General Laws. In the event the charter commission recommends the adoption of one of the optional forms of county government authorized by chapter forty-three B of the General Laws the ballot question placed on the election ballot shall be:

"Shall the (here designate the caption of the opted section of the County Charter Procedures Act) be adopted for Nantucket County, with the provision of a board of county commissioners of (here designate the opted number 3, 5 or 7) members elected for (concurrent or non-concurrent) terms and elected at large "

The question shall appear on the ballot and be submitted to the voters at the first annual town meeting for the election of town officers as provided in section eleven of said chapter forty-three B. Otherwise for county purposes the provisions of subsections (B) and (C) of section thirteen of chapter thirty-four A of the General Laws shall apply so far as apt. The charter commission may recommend the adoption of a single charter for both the town and county and, in such event, may further recommend that the town and county be consolidated, or not be consolidated, as a single body corporate.

SECTION 7. Consistent with the foregoing sections of this act, the charter procedure provisions of sections ten to nineteen, inclusive, of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws shall apply to the proceedings governed by this act so far as apt. Any charter adopted under this act for the town or the county, respectively, shall also be deemed adopted respectively under said sections ten to nineteen. If for the county, one certificate prepared in quintuplicate shall be recorded in the records of the county clerk and deposited in the county archives.

SECTION 8. In the event a charter is adopted by and for the town or the county, or both, its or their powers and duties and the applicability of general laws shall be as provided in sections thirteen and twenty of chapter forty-three B of the General Laws and sections fifteen and sixteen of chapter thirty-four A of the General Laws. Accordingly, the grant of powers under this act is intended to be as broad as consistent with the construction of the Constitution of the Commonwealth and the General Laws relating to the local government.

SECTION 9. In the event a resolution for creation of a charter commission just for Nantucket county has been filed pursuant to chapter thirty-four A of the General Laws prior to this act shall take effect, proceedings toward a charter pursuant to this act shall have precedence, notwithstanding subsection (C) of section three of said chapter thirty-four A. Any charter commission created just for Nantucket county shall be discharged automatically upon the creation of a consolidated town-county charter commission under this act and its records shall be transferred to the consolidated commission.

SECTION 10. This act shall be submitted for acceptance to the voters of the town of Nantucket at an annual or special town meeting in the form of the following question:- "Shall an act passed by the general court in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-two, entitled 'An Act authorizing the town of Nantucket and the County of Nantucket to adopt a consolidated charter', be accepted " If a majority of the votes cast in answer to said question is in the affirmative, said act shall take effect but not otherwise.