The Town Council will be discussing Charter amendments proposed by the Town Manager at the 1/12/2026 meeting.
The proposed Charter changes were sent to the State Attorney General for review, while the AG did not object to the amendments, they did find a problem with the current Charter
January 8, 2026:
Re: Proposed Charter Amendments
Dear Clerk Farrell:
Pursuant to 49-B:4-a, on behalf of the Town of Londonderry, you submitted proposed
charter amendments for review. The proposed amendments were dated November 18, 2025, and
received by November 24, 2025.
Following a review, the Attorney General’s Office, Secretary of State’s Office, and
Department of Revenue Administration do not object to the proposed charter amendments.
However, in reviewing the proposed charter amendment, the Secretary of State’s Office
identified that current charter section 7.6 (proposed to be renumbered as section 6.04(c)), does
not appear to conform to current State law. RSA 49-D:3, I(e) authorizes a town charter to
include “citizen power of initiative, referendum, and recall as described in RSA 49-С.”
(Emphasis added.) Although RSA chapter 49-C includes initiative and referendum procedures,
the statute does not provide any authority include a citizen recall procedure in a charter. In 2005,
the Superior Court struck down a recall provision in Seabrook’s town charter, ruling that the
legislature did not provide towns with the authority to include recall and removal procedures in
their charters. See Knowles, et al v Latham, et al, Rockingham Superior Court, Docket No.
2004-E-0361.
I encourage the Town to discuss this apparent conflict with the town’s legal counsel.
It looks like we will have more changes to the Town Charter moving forward