Harwich Charter Commission Votes to Eliminate Most of Chapter 5

HARWICH — February 19, 2026 — Harwich Charter Commission agrees to gut Chapter 5 and extend strong-chief authority to the police chief. Meeting Thursday, the commission reached working consensus to delete Sections 511 through 517 of the draft charter, which defined administrative divisions and department directors, folding the remaining substance into the town administrator's existing powers under Section 4-5-1 and placing a definition of "division" into the charter's definitions section. Members also agreed the police chief should receive the same "strong chief" hiring authority already held by the fire chief, allowing the police chief to hire officers without Select Board ratification of each appointment — a change one member framed as freeing the board from "spending 20 minutes or half an hour" on routine personnel confirmations. The commission deferred a separate question of whether to retitle the town administrator as "town manager," agreeing to seek public input at a spring community meeting and to query consultants at the Collins Center about trends across Massachusetts municipalities before taking any position.