According to accounts, the newly formed Charter Review selection committee held its organizational meeting the previous week and entertained a proposal to select the future Charter Review Committee members through a random drawing—names written on paper, placed in a hat, and drawn one at a time. We find this approach problematic and fundamentally inappropriate. The mere consideration of such an unsound selection method at the outset of a Charter Review process raises serious concerns about the quality of decisions that might follow should such a process move forward. Using random selection from a hat to fill Charter Review positions represents poor judgment and misguided thinking. Every aspect of such a procedure contradicts what the process should embody. Would councilors or others in Chelsea accept choosing their physicians this way as part of their healthcare decisions? Would we tolerate college admissions policies based on names drawn randomly from a hat? Should police and firefighter hiring depend on such a selection method? The fact that a committee not yet formed would even consider this approach is deeply troubling to those of us who recognize that Chelsea’s current stability depends on a rigorous process requiring careful deliberation and strong moral and legal standards before modifications are made to the legal framework governing this city. Selecting Charter Review Committee members must be treated with nearly the same care as the decisions they will ultimately make. This is a city that once collapsed under widespread public corruption and moral, social and economic crisis. It would be a dangerous regression to return to those dark days that nearly destroyed Chelsea—when the city could not pay its teachers and the state placed it in receivership. While the current city Charter is imperfect and some revisions are warranted, the Charter Review Committee cannot consist of random citizens selected by drawing names from a hat. Government here cannot operate on randomness. Nothing would be more poorly conceived for an important Charter Review process than random selection. Committee members must understand the city, its laws and finances, and must be genuinely qualified for their positions and service. The stakes surrounding the Charter Review Committee’s formation are substantial. We call on the selection committee to pursue more thoughtful approaches to choosing members than drawing names from a hat. Doing otherwise would be a disservice—and would signal the beginning of the end of the progress Chelsea has achieved in recent years.
Charter review off to questionable start
