Residents of several Mass. communities pushing for their towns to become cities

The population in some Massachusetts towns has blown up over the years. It's causing some neighbors in those communities to say it's time to change how their local governments operate. Shrewsbury is a quaint New England town in Worcester County, but it's no longer all that small. >> Shrewberry has had a town manager, select board, representative town meeting form of government since 1953. That form of government was adopted back when the town's population was about 11,000 people. population is about 40,000 people. So, it's grown significantly and the challenges have gotten more complex. >> In August, Shrewsbury officials created a form of government study committee to examine whether the status quo still works or whether they should move away from things like an annual town meeting. One possible outcome to become a city. >> Nothing is off the table. >> Carlos Garcia is a select board member on the new committee. I think a lot of people in our community really are proud of that history, but sometimes, especially with the way meetings are are run where we have, you know, one meeting on Tuesday and then there's another important one on a Thursday. Sometimes it's just really hard to figure out what's the thing that I need to pay attention to. >> In Andover, a group of citizens collected enough signatures to get a question on the ballot to examine their municipal charter. >> I do think we we need to make decisions sometimes quicker than we're able to. Andover's town meeting is open, meaning every resident is invited to attend. On paper, that should make the process very democratic. But Brad Wright doesn't think that's what happens in reality. >> I think people who are happy with the status quo or people who have been in town uh for a long time. I think it's very difficult for young families with children uh to come not only to one night, but to multiple nights of town meeting. >> Brooklyn is yet another town where there's been a call for reform. a group of citizens want the town to become a city. >> It does add a degree of efficiency, but I I think, you know, I would caution there that there's there's no perfectly efficient system of government. >> Peter Yubberacio is a political scientist at Stonehill College. >> You are essentially saying we're going to entrust that the people we elect will properly represent us as opposed to citizens representing themselves directly in a in a high school auditorium. Framingham transitioned from being a town to a city on January 1st, 2018.