When it comes to adopting an overarching set of guidelines on whether town property could play host to political events, local political parties are reaching across the aisle.

According to Laurel Redden, chairman of the Salem Democratic Town Committee, her organization received varying responses from town officials when they have sought to rent public space for political events in the past. On Sept. 28, Redden joined Jeff Hatch, chairman of the Republican Town Committee, in asking that the Board of Selectmen determine whether such a policy is in place or, if not, draw up a set of guidelines.

“Depending on what staff person is in charge and who they’re asking or who they’re talking to, we’ve gotten different answers to use a townowned facility for political purposes,” Redden said. “What I’m after is one specific set of rules and regulations that all staff persons could apprise.”

Most recently, a forum on health care sponsored by the organization to be held in the Kelley Library in August was canceled due to its political nature, according to Redden, though she said the cancellation was not the motivation behind her request to the selectmen.

“I want to be clear, I am not specifically after the library. They are just one of a couple of town entities that we have approached over the years,” she said “This has been going on for a number of years.”

While the selectmen have no say over any policy the library might have in place – that would be under the purview of the library trustees – Redden would like to see the board work with whomever necessary to create a blanket set of guidelines for all of the town’s facilities.

According to Hatch, such an overarching policy would make it clear when and where town facilities could be used for political activities from any political or social organization in town.

“I would like to see some type of consensus townwide that you can hold a political function in these places and these are where you can’t,” he said.

The Republican Town Committee has not had many problems trying to rent space from the town in the past, mainly because the group rarely tried to rent or use public property, according to Hatch. He said it has been unofficial town policy to turn down requests to use public property for political events, though that had changed depending on who is running any given department.

“There’s no central location, no central figure of authority who has control of everything. That’s really our issue,” Hatch said.

On Sept. 28, Town Manager Jonathan Sistare told selectmen that the town required a certificate of insurance from an organization seeking to use public property. According to Sistare, the town had no formal set of guidelines or policy to use when deciding whether to rent a facility to an organization.

According to officials, Sistare is currently reviewing similar policies adopted by other communities.

“This is one issue that does cross party lines,” Hatch said. “We’re taxpayers too. We just want a place that we can meet. We want a place that we can feel safe, pass out information and just be accepted.”