The Somerset County Commissioners authorized the formation of a Charter Commission on January 2nd of 2008.
Petitions for membership are available at the County Administrator's Office located at 41 Court Street in Skowhegan or they can be obtained in your municipality or the Secretary of State's Office in Augusta.
Title 30-A sec1321, subsection 1, provides that the county commissioners, by order, can provide for the establishment of a charter commission.
The charter commission shall consist of 9 members, 6 of whom must be voters of the county and elected by Commissioner District. The voter members must be nominated and elected without party designation. The election of these 6 voter members will be held on November 4, 2008 in the General Election. The candidates for the 6 voter member positions must circulate nomination petitions as provided for in Title 21-A, sections 351, 354, 355 and 356. This is a non-party nomination process. The Voters who sign the petition must be registered to vote in the County Commissioner district of the candidate and may be enrolled in any party or may be un-enrolled. The petitions must be submitted to the applicable municipalities for certification of the signers by May 27th at 5:00 p.m. and the certified petitions must be submitted to the Secretary of State's Office no later than June 2nd at 5:00 p.m., for certification on the ballot. A copy of the 2008 Candidate Guide can be found on the Secretary of State's website: http://www.maine.gov/sos/elec/candid06.htm
Once the candidates have been certified for the ballot, the Secretary of State's Office will prepare the ballot and the process will be treated like any other statewide or county office election. The municipalities will report the results of the election to the Secretary of State's Office and the Secretary of State's Office will notify the County of the winning candidates.
Within 30 days after the the voter members have been selected, the County Commissioners shall make appointments for the other 3 members of the Commission. No more than 2 appointive members may be members of the same political party; One appointive member must be a county commissioner, once must be a municipal officer and one must be either a Senator or Representative. A 7 Day notice shall be given to the Clerk of each municipality and each member of the county legislative delegation of the date, time and place of the meeting at which time the appointive members will be selected. The County Commissioners shall set the date, time and place of the meeting.
More information will follow....