BCAT News

As Burlington considers the pros and cons of changing its Town Clerk position from an elected to an appointed role, it’s looking to nearby Arlington for lessons and insights on making the change. 

“The risk of having an elected clerk and having it go badly is much more substantial than any awkwardness you might find going through the appointment process,” said Arlington Town Clerk Juli Brazile, who successfully pushed the change through Arlington’s Town Meeting and ballot initiative process. 

Brazile was elected in 2020, and she said the clerk before her hadn’t been responsive to the public or collaborative with town government. “They weren’t doing processes to keep things running, things that are totally invisible to the public. The public wants to know their dog is getting licensed and they want to vote and they want it to go smoothly, but there’s so much that the public and possibly even Town Hall has no idea about,” she said, that wasn’t getting done. 

Brazile said when she got into office she quickly began lobbying to turn her own job into an appointed role. It’s the same process Burlington would need to go through: Town Meeting voted to put the issue on the ballot, and voters supported the measure in the local election. 

Now Arlington is waiting for their home rule petition to be approved by the state. If it’s approved, Brazile will remain in her elected role until her term ends in 2026; then, the Arlington Town Manager will have the right to fill the role as he would any other department head like a police chief or fire chief. Brazile has not said whether or not she would apply for her own job. 

“These days, the town clerk’s position as an administrative area for all of us has become so technical, so precise of things that have to happen,” said Elliot Chikofsky, a Burlington resident who has volunteered at the polls and who now sits on the town clerk committee. “It was very interesting to hear [Arlington’s] reasons, the rationale, some of the politics, their experience with the previous clerk and so forth.” 

Burlington Town Clerk Amy Warfield has taken an active role in moving the change forward, speaking at Select Board meetings and pushing to have the article on the Town Meeting warrant. But, she says, as the chief elections officer, she cannot take a public stand on something that could be a ballot question, because it could call the results into question.  “We’re no longer the little sleepy town that we were even 20 years ago that anybody elected can just come in and do it,” she said. “It’s time for the voters to look at the question.”