Bylaw Review Committee

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The Amherst Home Rule Charter (“Charter”) approved on March 27, 2018, authorizes the Select Board, in Section 10.7(u), to appoint a committee to begin a review of the Town bylaws for the purpose of preparing such revisions and amendments as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with the provisions of this Charter and to fully implement the provisions of the Charter.


The committee may consult with appropriate staff, boards, committees, and members of the public and also review the bylaws to determine whether they are serving their intended purposes, making recommendations to the Town Council-elect. The review shall be conducted under the supervision of the Town Attorney, or by special counsel appointed for that express purpose. The Town Manager shall provide logistical support and access to the Town Attorney as appropriate. A member of the Charter Commission and a member of the Select Board will be available to assist the committee as needed and appropriate.

The committee shall submit a report, with recommendations, to the Town Council-elect following the election held on November 6, 2018 (or January 24, 2019 under Section 10.9 of the Charter).

Committee Members

Name Year Appointed Term Expires
Bernie Kubiak 2018 Until terminated
Ken Hargreaves
 2018
 Until terminated
Bob Ritchie (Chair)
 2018 Until terminated

Documents Submitted to the Town Council

Resources

The following documents are resources that the Bylaw Review Committee will using to guide various aspects of its work:

General Bylaw Drafting History

The following documents are progressive versions of the edits suggested by the Bylaw Review Committee. Please refer to the Editing Strategies & Conventions of the Bylaw Review Committee document to understand various versions and color-coding conventions.

  • Draft #0: This draft represents an unchanged version of the Amherst General Bylaws, as amended through Annual Town Meeting 2018. Please note that although this draft incorporates changes adopted by Town Meeting in 2018, those amendments will not be effective until approved by the Attorney General.
  • Draft #1: Code text, titles, captions, and framework unaltered. Text is color-coded to indicate which bylaws can be substantially retained, and which need substantive amendments to adhere to the Charter.
  • Draft #2: Track-changes used for further deletions, substitutions, and new text. Legislative history is still retained at this point. Comments used to tag text for repositioning; repositioning left for later.
  • Draft #3: Includes additional edits and incorporates new format for all bylaws.
  • Draft #4: Includes additional edits, fixes some incorrect formatting, updates data-blocks.
  • Draft #5: Includes additional edits, formatting fixes, and alphabetical Table of Contents.
  • Draft #6: Includes additional minor edits and removes color coding.