Minutes of Charter Commission Meeting held June 16, 2008

 

Present :           Peg Arguimbau

                        George Bailey

                        Alan Garf

                        Sam Liao

                        Andy Nebenzahl - Chair

                        Colleen Tuck

Absent:             Paul Izzo

                        Abigail Marsters

                        Paul Pietal

 

Chairman Nebenzahl opened meeting with a pitch for attendance at the Public Hearing on June 23rd.

 

Attempt to approve minutes –Peg Arguimbau raised the concern about stating in the minutes that we received emails without noting the subject - doesn’t mean much. There was a discussion about the procedure to amend the minutes prior to the meeting. Sam Liao suggested that with our own secretary things may smooth out and the level of detail will better set out.

            George Bailey made a motion to add the words that described the emails sent, but given the discussion, the chair decided to table accepting the minutes until next meeting. George also made the point that he concurred with Paul Izzo’s approach to minutes – record precise business  and also for the purpose of public awareness/education of proceedings.

            Chair’s prerogative to table format of the minutes, and after the public hearing we will have another discussion so that all may contribute. For now, when draft minutes are received, notify the Clerk if changes are to be taken up at the next meeting.

 

Discussion of hiring Secretary – Chair had emailed out to the Committee a note from Len Sacom of the Personnel Board stating the position was approved at the initial scale. Per. Bd. needs a draft job description to go by, in order to finalize the scale.

Discussed job description – Collen Tuck commented on pg 2 – “Knowledge, Ability, Skill” section needed to add specific wording to include “MS Word and email” rather than “compatible” and a laptop would be even better. George Bailey thought “compatible” should be left in as many new programs are now available that are compatible with MS Word. Agreed to leave in. Sam Liao wanted to delete “tape recorder” and replace with “recording devices”. All agreed.  Alan Garf moved to approve the job description as amended and have the Chair forward it to Personnel Board to establish the job classification. Seconded by Colleen Tuck – vote 6-0 in favor. Chair pointed out that he placed ad in Advocate for Friday. He will interview any candidates that apply. The deadline for applying is June 23rd.

 

Discussion of public Hearing -  Date is June 23rd at the High School Library beginning at 7:30PM. Chair drafted an invitation and emailed it out today to many town boards encouraging them to attend the meeting. He phoned Ira Miller from Fin. Comm. – unfortunately that group is meeting the same night. He also phoned the Moderator, Paul Bouton, for his input.

            The number of folks who show up will determine the time per person for discussion. Committee decided that putting a few questions out may get the best feedback. Sam Liao was concerned that we do not get ahead of ourselves in terms of what our goals are. Introduce ourselves, a short speech by the Chair and take input from attendees about what they’d like to see – basically let the Chair run it. If any comm. members have specific questions they’d like to use, email them to the Chair and he’ll try to use them. Andy also envisioned more public hearings as we get more involved in the work of the committee. Rather than enter into huge discussions, our response should be that at this point in time we are just beginning our work. Much discussion followed about the committee’s position – how we arrive at it, what goes into how we make our decisions, and methods of getting to that point. George Bailey also suggested that folks that may be coming to the meeting, or may not be able to attend, should feel free to email us their concerns/questions. That engendered a discussion about how the group could access those email by “groups”. After some attempts to explain how that’s done, the Chair stated he just wants to try the sausage – doesn’t need to know how it’s made!

 

Other business – George Bailey had put together spread sheets of historical data about Town Meeting attendance back to 1945. Also had 15 other sheets about activities at Town Meetings back to 1901. Brought two books about New England Town Meetings, one by Joe Zimmerman, the other by Frank Bryan. Discussion about that information now being part of the public record and maybe mark it “draft” or “preliminary”. George Bailey said he’ll get it around to all the members.

 

Alan Garf moved to adjourn, but the Chair put a hold on that until we talked about what to do with the info we get. Post everything? Alan Garf suggested that could be a problem down the road when it comes time to get the public to support our efforts. The Chair suggested perhaps posting things with a disclaimer. More discussion on this at the next meeting.

Sam Liao seconded the motion to adjourn – one more reminder about the public hearing -

Alan Garf then removed to adjourn and Sam Liao seconded the motion. Voted 6-0 in favor.

 

Next meeting at 7PM – before the public hearing – at the High School Library.

 

Submitted by Peg Arguimbau – secretary for the night.