Citizen Advisory Committee Charter

What the committee is for

The Citizen Advisory Committee works on the Community Benefits Plan for the proposed battery energy storage project at 131 Carpenter Hill Road. Massachusetts siting rules require the project to pursue a community benefits plan with the host community. We are asking the committee to do three things.

Guide how the project engages the community. We have gotten parts of this wrong already. The committee tells us how to reach people in Charlton in a way that works, and we change what we do based on that.

Say what matters, and what belongs in the plan. The committee reviews, challenges, and shapes what goes into the draft plan before it is published for public comment. The published draft shows how committee input changed it.

Hold town officials accountable. The town, not this committee, negotiates any agreement with the project. The committee's role is to hold its own town officials to what went into the plan, and to keep asking whether it made it through.

The committee advises. It does not approve the project, and it does not negotiate on behalf of the town. Decisions about any signed agreement rest with the town and the project, with review by the Select Board and the Town Administrator, and every town board invited to weigh in, especially the Planning Board.

Meetings are open to everyone

Every committee meeting is open. Anyone can attend, speak, ask questions, and see the materials, whether or not they are a member. Membership never controls who gets heard, and every comment made at a meeting is captured the same way, member or not.

What membership means

Membership adds responsibilities. It does not add access, because access is already open to everyone. A member agrees to:

• Attend committee meetings regularly, and let us know when they cannot.
• Review the posted materials before each meeting.
• Bring their neighbors' questions and concerns to the committee, and carry what the committee discusses back out.
• Be listed on the public roster, in the way they choose. See the roster section below.

How to join

Membership stays open for the life of the committee. To join, say so at any meeting or email Jonathan Santiago at jsantiago@esa-solar.com. Anyone who accepts the responsibilities above is added. There is no cap, no application, and no approval step. To step down, just tell us, and the roster gets updated.

The roster

The roster opened at the third committee meeting, September 10, 2026. It is published here and updated as people join or leave. We publish a name only with that person's permission. A member who prefers not to be named is counted on the roster without their name shown.

Current roster: Forming. Say so at tonight's meeting or email Jonathan Santiago to be the first name on it.

How the committee's input is used

Meeting notes record what was raised and the range of views, including disagreement. Input from committee meetings feeds the draft Community Benefits Plan, and the published draft shows how that input shaped it.

How the committee registers where its members stand is not settled. If the committee wants a more formal way to do that, propose it and we will work it out together.

How long the committee runs

The committee runs through the state siting process for the project. The third role above raises a question the committee should settle this fall: any agreement between the town and the project would be negotiated after the plan is written, so the committee needs to decide whether it keeps meeting through that and what it reviews when it does. That is a question for the Community Benefits Plan discussions, and the answer belongs in the plan itself.

Changing this charter

This is a working document. Suggest changes at any meeting or by email, and we will publish the revised version alongside the roster.

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Contact: Jonathan Santiago · jsantiago@esa-solar.com · 407-232-7440 ext. 251