Burlington Charter Panel Votes to Rename Ways and Means, Keep Referendum Threshold

BURLINGTON -- January 27, 2026, Burlington's Charter Review Committee voted to recommend renaming the Committee of Ways and Means to the Finance Committee, passing 9-1 at the panel's January 27 meeting. The committee, drafting the town's first-ever municipal charter without its Collins Center consultants present, also voted 9-1 to preserve Burlington's existing referendum override threshold, which requires 20 percent of eligible voters to cast ballots in favor of reversal to overturn any town meeting decision, a bar members noted was met during the 2025 high school bond election that drew 36 percent turnout. Two additional unanimous votes locked in the Select Board's five-member, three-year overlapping term structure and consolidated Select Board appointing authority language in the draft charter. A fifth vote, placing procurement and contracting authority under the town administrator, passed 9-2 with two members citing unresolved concerns about departmental autonomy. Questions about the town administrator's formal oversight of independently elected boards, including the Planning Board and Board of Health, and the title of town administrator versus town manager were carried to the next meeting, which will be held remotely via Webex.