The charter commission has begun looking at adopting a town council form of government, though Chairman Robert Campbell is quick to point out that nothing is set in stone.

Campbell said the ninemember commission has reached a tentative consensus to start moving in the direction of an official ballot town council.

What proposals would go before voters on the ballot, whether or not to retain a budget committee of some kind and what the overall budgeting process would be remain questions that the commission has yet to answer, according to Campbell.

“One has to make decisions as to what goes on the official ballot and there is a lot of flexibility there. We are trying to develop a consensus on a list of things that ought to go on the ballot,” Campbell said.

“We are looking at how we handle the budgeting process on the official ballot. There is a question of whether or not one would have an open meeting, such as official town meeting that includes an open session in February and another open session after the election in March. We’re looking at whether or not those would be a necessary or appropriate part of the process.”

Arthur Barnes, chairman of the Board of Selectmen and a member of the charter commission, believes that a town council form of government would make the budgeting process more efficient and flexible than it is currently.

According to Barnes, the current budgeting process is a months-long procedure that begins in August and ends around Thanksgiving. Barnes said the budget committee’s review of the town’s finances makes up about a month and a half of work onto the process.

“I have read through the charters in many of the towns in New Hampshire that have the town council, and I have come to realize that only a couple of them have a budget committee,” he said. “If you eliminate the budget committee, you streamline that down quite a bit.”

By giving the council both the legislative and executive powers, Barnes also believes the town can avoid having projects and proposals hijacked by an active minority within the community taking advantage of low turnouts at the town meeting and deliberative sessions.

“Under current system, a minority group can, with 25 signatures, bring forward a project and those people, if they show up at the second session, can sway the day because we only have 80 people show up. We would prevent that with a town council” he said. “Whether you want to call them the ‘vocal minority’ or ‘minority’ or whatever, we would at least have elected representatives making those decisions instead of a selfappointed group of representatives.”

A member of the Budget Committee as well as the charter commission, Stephen Campbell said he understands the concerns raised by other members of the commission – particularly the problem of lack of turnout at Salem’s deliberative sessions and town meeting – but concentrating power in the hands of even fewer people in the form of a town council made little sense to him.

“I always wanted to have more people involved, but instead of having all of this power being given to the town council, my solution is to put more on the ballot,” Campbell said. “I can’t agree with giving more power to the town council and taking power away from the people.”

Campbell said he was one of three members of the commission who voted against moving forward with the official ballot town council form of government.

The commission meets next on Thursday, Aug. 27. Any proposed changes to the town’s current charter will go before voters in March for final approval.