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Some advocates of governmental reform for North Attleboro were no doubt enheartened Wednesday, when it was reported that North Attleboro Selectmen Chairman John Rhyno has grown warmer to the idea of switching to a mayoral form of government. Don't count me as one of them.

That's not to say Rhyno's position isn't significant. He has in the past been an ardent opponent to any moves toward anything resembling cityhood for North. He is a popular political leader, with a man-of-the-people voice that a lot of voters listen to. As for the bloggers who instantly suggested Rhyno likes the idea of having a mayor because he wants the job, do you remember the "Gallery Gods" of the old Boston Garden? For some folks, the fun of local politics, like with Bruins' hockey of yore, is not in the game, but in the booing and the throwing of foreign objects onto the rink. Rhyno speaks from the heart, not from ambition.

But the ghost of Joseph Martin himself could rise up from his grave and declare in no uncertain terms that North needs to bring its government into the 21st century, and I'd still think the idea of reform for North government is just a pipe dream.

I won't start thinking reform has a chance of becoming a reality until two things happen:

(1) A referendum goes before the voters of North Attleboro to abolish representative town meeting and return to open town meeting; (2) A referendum goes before the voters to establish a commission to present a town charter for adoption by the voters. You might be thinking that open town meeting represents a return to the past rather than a step into the 21st century, and I'd say you're absolutely right.

But sometimes, they say, you have to take a step backwards before you take a step forward, and that's the case regarding North Attleboro government. And a return of open town meeting would be a temporary measure, but one essential to getting true reforms enacted.

I haven't kept count of how many serious attempts have been made at modernizing North Attleboro government over the past 30 years, but I am certain it would qualify as: a bunch, a lot, several ... Take your pick.

The institution of Representative Town Meeting was barely a year old when the late Reed Morse was calling it a mistake, pointing to its inability to draw a sufficient number of candidates for all the seats, setting a pattern that has continued to this day with little if any interruption.

Since then, at least one charter commission has been formed - to ultimately see its proposals rejected. Another group took its case directly to the people, but was thwarted at the Statehouse. All the other efforts at governmental change have been tripped up by one thing or another; leading the list of usual suspects is RTM's institutional instinct for self-preservation.

One definition of craziness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The North Attleboro government reform effort could avoid institutionalization, we suppose, since there have been minor differences in the reform proposals, but its three-decade history of banging its head against the RTM wall has to qualify it as neurotic to a very unhealthy degree.

A series of scandals around Town Hall, some of them petty, has got the reform buzz going again, as it should. The selling of football betting cards on town time could happen anywhere, but North Attleboro's governmental system almost seems to invite it. The executive side of town government is a fractious system of committees. The legislative side is RTM, primarily made up of town officials and town employees and the buddies they enlist to serve when nobody runs for vacant seats. In total it's a system, as one reform advocate put it a few years ago, where the buck doesn't stop anywhere. North needs a system where the lines of accountability are crystal clear.

The Legislature has made it plain that no reform legislation will be accepted unless it is through the charter commission system. History has made it plain that RTM will block anything that threatens its existence.

Granted, it will take time - a couple of years anyway - to go through the legal and political processes to both abolish RTM and formally adopt a town charter. But lots of time, along with thousands paid to consultants and other advisers, has already been spent on a number of reform efforts. It has all been wasted. Temporarily returning to an open town meeting would at least give reform a chance at passing.

MARK FLANAGAN (mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com) is Opinion Page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335.