Selectmen voted to create a charter reform committee but plans for the panel have yet to be nailed down.

In a unanimous vote on Monday, April 14, selectmen approved a proposal by Selectman Michael Lyons to create a seven- person panel to investigate the town’s governing charter while assessing other possible options.

Four seats of the committee will be made up of representatives of the Board of Selectmen, the Budget Committee, the School Board and the Capital Improvement Plan Committee. Selectmen will appoint three citizens who are not currently serving on other major boards or committees to make up the remaining spots on the panel, selectmen said.

While the charter committee was originally proposed to have only five members with one citizen- at-large position, the number was boosted to assist in the large task of researching the town’s government to recommend improvements. The only decision put off by selectmen were the definitive directions in three areas where the Charter Reform Committee would investigate.

The first may be to correct the questioned status of the Municipal Budget Committee, which Town Manager Jonathan Sistare said may not be sanctioned under the state statute that provides Salem’s charter.

Sistare said he was awaiting further direction from the state Deptartment of Revenue Administration for recommendation on the Budget Committee clarification and any suggested areas to improve the charter.

The second purpose, supported by Lyons, is to lower the bond approval threshold from two-thirds to a three-fifths majority. Lyons said he would not hide his intentions to help the town address needed capital improvements and infrastructure demands. “We have serious infrastructure problems that we are not addressing. I’ll make no bones about it,” Lyons said.

In four years, two police station bond articles and a bond article for town-wide bridge repairs were rejected by voters because majority approval did not reach 67 percent.

Selectmen may also direct the charter reform committee to consider the presentation of formally elected charter commission that may take the town’s government in any direction.

Patrick McDougall, of 11 Tiffany Road, pleaded to selectmen to not direct the town to a city form of government.

A former resident of Methuen, Mass., McDougall said he moved to Salem five years ago to live in a town where voters had a greater say in the government.

“If this town becomes a city, I will pack up my things and move my family out of town and will encourage others to do so,” he said.

Final directions for the charter committee are to be determined at the board’s next meeting on April 28.