The question of how to improve and possibly restructure municipal government while fostering a more active citizenry dominated a public discussion hosted by the Charter Commission on July 2.

The town’s newly formed commission took suggestions from about a dozen members of the public, listening to ideas including making it easier to pass big budget infrastructure items and increasing governmental transparency.

“I have seen this town grow from the time that the Market Basket supermarket was a cornfield. This town has really changed and grown by the topsy-turvy. It’s very discouraging to see that only 5 percent of our population is involved in the Town Meeting,” said Larry Levine. “That’s where I think the problems are, a lot of the decisions are made by just those few that attend the meetings.”

Levine spoke in favor of Salem adopting a different style of town government, switching from the Town Meeting to a town or city council. Allowing individuals with a greater grasp of the issues to make the decisions – rather than going before a Town Meeting for approval – would increase efficiency, he said.

Pamela Berry, a member of the School Board and a defeated candidate for the commission, said that elected officials for both the school district and the municipality currently spends too much time as “sales or marketing reps” when it comes to getting residents informed and involved for Town Meeting.

While she did not outline changes she would like to see the commission make in the way the town is governed – other than to keep the school district separate from any new form of municipal government – Berry did say the current charter forces officials to spend increasingly more time educating the public on the issues.

“I think we see less people less involved and less knowledgeable, but what we do see is more people voting. This charter committee needs to decide if the citizens of Salem are really participating in the government we have now,” Berry said.

Another defeated candidate for the commission, Tom Linehan, spoke out in favor of keeping the current twothirds super majority to pass bond issues.

“The people should decide the major issues, bond articles, contracts and anything that affects the long term … should probably be approved by a super majority,” he said. “It’s not just the people who are approving it at the time, they’re representing future generations and a simple majority is really not a fair way to do that.”

Linehan said Salem does not have a revenue stream problem, it has a spending problem. Switching to a different style of government would make it easier to spend, he told the commission.

Approved by voters in March, the commission has been charged with studying the town’s current form of municipal governance and recommending improvements, from changes to the town charter to overhauling the town government. Chairman Robert Campbell, also a member of the town’s planning board, said he planned on allowing residents to offer feedback through an online survey.

“We will provide continuing opportunities for input from (residents),” he said. “We will be filtering out some of these ideas and refining some of our direction. We want to hear from (residents) here … we will continue to seek (input).”