Town Government Study Committee Outlines 5 Themes for Change

The Wrentham Town Government Study Committee updated the selectmen on their progress to determine the effectiveness of the town government.

The committee had about 70 suggestions from boards and officials within the town and found five overlying themes: communication, collaboration, process and documentation, leadership and resources sharing.

“The strategy we decided to pursue after all the data was collected throughout the fall was not to develop specific representations,” said chair of the WTGSC Jerry McGovern. "Our intent is after tonight to start doing the grunt work and turn those [five themes] into actual recommendations."

McGovern said that these “game changers” would allow the town to improve its organizational structure both in the short term and in the long term.

“We give you three to five game changers and everything else becomes some kind of low hanging fruit,” he said. “We want those game changers that are really going to make a difference… an assertable difference both with the employees, boards and the commissions.”

McGovern said that the first step they took was to issue a survey to the town. He said that of the 4,503 homes the surveys were sent out to, 414 surveys were sent back, with a response rate of 9.19 percent response rate. He said that 80 percent of the responders said they were happy with the way the government was run.

WTGSC member Kevin Murphy said unless there’s a serious problem, people are generally happy with the way things are run and do not show up for town meetings.

“I think it’s a sign of success that people trust the town government,” he said.

Selectmen agreed with the committee that the town representative government does well and getting people to the town meeting can be tough.

“The last time, they had 22 people, excluding those that had to be there,” said selectmen Michael Carroll.