JAM SESSION: Charter commission
Wicked Local
Jam session is an opinion forum offering comments on issues from a group of Plymouth residents. It appears on the Forum pages in the Weekend edition of the OCM.
The newspaper poses a question to the group each week, and participants choose whether to comment. This column is designed to bring the voices of well-informed residents into the Forum page to address issues, one at a time.
Participants cross the local political spectrum and live throughout the town. Some are current or past Town Meeting representatives, and all are active in the community. We hope their diverse points of view will encourage discussion of the issues Plymouth faces.
Clark Corson
Clark Corson is a Plymouth resident
Plymouth, the first permanent settlement in the United States, has grown over the past 400 years from an initial colony of 102 to 63,411 in 2020. Our Town Meeting form of government, based on the egalitarian idea that all should have an equal say in their governance, has served us well for most of this time. But that is no longer the case. We have grown well beyond the stage where all participate in their government. In fact, very few Plymoutheans actually participate, resulting in an inefficient, bloated, unaccountable government with many conflicts of interest.
Based on population, Plymouth is the 15th largest municipality in Massachusetts. Of note, 40 towns smaller than Plymouth have already made the decision to convert to a city/council form of government. So, it is time to have an honest conversation about our future. Plymouth is a great community that has the resources, people power, and energy to be even better