WARREN — Members of the Charter Review Commission say the changes they’re proposing don’t target the town manager’s office.

It just seemed that way last night.

Much of the initial discussion during a Town Council workshop on the proposed amendments did indeed focus on the responsibilities of the town manager — an appointed position currently held by Michael J. Abbruzzi — more specifically, a series of changes that would transfer the authority to hire and fire municipal employees from the manager to the elected Town Council.

Dave McCarthy, a member of the commission, told the council that the change would lend transparency to the hiring process by involving more parties. The council would have the final decision, but any applicants for town jobs would be screened by a newly created Personnel Board. The town manager would also sit in on the process.

In response to questions from the council and the audience in Town Hall, McCarthy said the commission was not trying to make any sort of comment on Abbruzzi’s job performance.

“We’re lucky,” said McCarthy. “We have someone of integrity and veracity in the position. We may not in the future.”

But others at the workshop said the amendment would undermine the manager’s position.

“I think if the town manager is going to be accountable to the Town Council, he needs to have the power to hire and fire,” said Jane MacDougall, a member of the Planning Board who was also on the original charter commission.

The restrictions on the town manager’s responsibilities are the most significant of the changes being proposed by the commission. In addition, among a slew of other changes, the town manager would be appointed by the council to two-year terms rather than the current three-year terms, the town clerk would be elected, and the nine-member Planning Board would lose two members.

The council held the public meeting last night to discuss the proposed revisions but was not set to make an immediate decision. If the council chooses to go forward with the proposed amendments, they would be placed on the local ballot during the general elections in November.

The commission was convened a year ago to come up with recommended changes to the Town Charter, which was adopted in 1996 and last updated in 2004.

Some of the proposed amendments amount to simple housekeeping. For example, although it’s accepted that only residents of Warren can sit on local boards and commissions, the charter does not currently have a process for removing them, according to the commission. If amended, the charter would make the restriction emphatic.

Other changes are more radical. The commission recommends making the town clerk’s position an elected office and envisions the first election in 2010. The town manager currently selects the person to fill the clerk’s position.

“A majority of the commission voted to make the town clerk’s position an elected post,” the commission wrote in an explanation to the council. “Some commission members felt there should be one town official in Town Hall who is elected by the people and that the people can turn to; some others felt the town clerk’s office is the ‘gateway’ to the town and as such should be headed by a person answerable to the public; others felt that as the keeper of public records, the town clerk should be answerable to the public.”

But Julie Coelho, the current clerk, called the proposal “insane.” She said that making the clerk an elected official could introduce bias into the office. A clerk could be beholden to a political party.

“When you throw politics into my office, you’re asking for a lot of trouble,” she said.

The commission recommends the creation of a Personnel Board to advise the council on all hiring. The board would screen all applicants for the council, which would then make any decision to hire someone.

The commission gave two main reasons for the proposal: “that final personnel decisions should rest with an appointing authority elected by the people — the Town Council;” and “that under the current system, appointments are made by one person behind closed doors without the appointees’ qualifications ever having to be made public.”

However, Patricia Sullivan, who was on the original commission that wrote the charter, said a conscious decision was made at the time to leave the day-to-day operations of the town to a manager. The Town Council, she said, should function like a board of directors at a company and makes policy decisions. The manager should be the equivalent of the chief executive officer.

“In my opinion, some of the changes really minimize the role of the manager,” she said.

Commission member Alfred Silva didn’t agree with Sullivan’s perspective.

“This is not a business,” he said. “This is a town.”

akuffner@projo.com