Sharon Charter Commission
Monday, July 21, 2008
Location: School Department Building
Members Present:
· George Bailey
· Alan Garf
· Abigail Marsters
· Sam Liao
· Andy Nebenzahl (Chair)
· Paul Pietal
· Colleen Tuck
Members Absent:
· Margaret Arguimbau
· Paul Izzo
Mr. Nebenzahl called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.
1. MOVED (Ms Marsters) and SECONDED (Mr Garf) to approve the minutes of the July 14, 2008 meeting.
VOTED to approve 7-0-1, Mr Pietal abstaining
2. Mr. Nebenzahl informed the members that he had interviewed one candidate for administrative secretary and had two others scheduled. He hoped to have a recommendation at the next meeting.
3. Town Organization
Mr. Bailey described minor edits he had received from Commission members to the Town Organization Chart spreadsheet distributed at the July 7 meeting and subsequently emailed to Commission members. He made the following points:
· Many Boards and Committees had not posted their minutes recently, some for several years.
· This spreadsheet is only a “working document.” References enabling to state statutes, town bylaws, etc., may not be complete.
· Some questions remain about how some boards and committees are appointed, to whom they report, and what working relationships they may have with town employees and other boards.
Mr Bailey will send a copy to the Town Administrator for review and have it posted on the Commission web site, clearly labeled Draft.
4. Sharon General By-Laws
Mr Pietal reported that he had reviewed 29 of 39 bylaws in the General By-Laws of the Town and “ran out of gas.” He will complete and email power point document to Commission members for discussion at next meeting. He is allocating each bylaw to one of three categories as they describe: organizational structure, organizational responsibilities, or neither of the above. The Commission will probably want to discuss only those that fall into the first two categories.
Mr Garf: Noted there are other bylaws, e.g., Personnel By-Laws and Zoning By-Laws.
Mr Bailey: Personnel By-Laws are “internal.” Town Meeting established the Personnel Committee; its by-laws are more like Policies and Procedures and are not voted on at Town Meeting.
Ms Tuck: some of them may be by Town Meeting vote, e.g., nepotism by-law.
Mr Nebenzahl: What’s a by-law? Is it what’s voted at town meeting or adopted by committee?
Mr Pietal: By-laws don’t have force of law if not followed. Commission needs to know a) what’s being done now and b) what needs to be codified and what just be included in Policies and Procedures.
Ms Marsters: There may be rules and policies and procedures that were adopted many years ago and no longer used or people don’t know they are there.
Mr Bailey: Planning Board Rules & Regs determine things like street width, utility locations, etc. without town meeting votes.
The Commission discussed whether we needed to discuss all these internal procedures and rules.
Mr Nebenzahl: We should be familiar with the by-laws in order to discuss the way in which the town adopts by-laws.
Ms Marsters will go to Town Hall and get copies of the following: Zoning By-Laws, Selectmen’s Policies and Procedures, Personnel By-Laws, Board of Health General Laws, and Planning Board Rules and Regulations.
5. Discussion of comparative analysis of town charters.
Mr Nebenzahl: Looked on the internet for some charters. Westwood, Newbury were not on town websites. He will call Marilyn Contreas at Mass Dept. of Housing and Community & Development to see about getting copies of town charters for towns of Sharon’s size.
Mr Bailey: He has charters for Needham and Natick – both Representative Town Meeting. He will email them to Paul Izzo.
Mr Liao: Suggested getting list of all municipalities with charters, eliminate those we are not interested in, e.g., very small towns in the Berkshires, cities like Boston.
Ms Tuck: Suggested Andover, a much larger town that recently considered other options but decided to stay with open town meeting.
Mr Garf: Thought we planned to look at charters for several towns with different forms of government.
Mr Nebenzahl: We need to look at the substance of Sharon’s government, whether we have a charter or not.
Mr Bailey: Whether residents are happy with their town’s current situation is not necessarily a valid criteria for replication.
6. Voting Participation in Sharon
Mr Bailey reviewed the voting participation spreadsheet and graph, showing voter participation in town meetings going back to 1945. He noted that the years before 1980 (the year Proposition 2½ was passed showed higher participation. Only in 1985 did town record the attendance at town meeting and years prior to that he deduced the attendance by tallying totals on recorded votes like zoning articles or borrowings.
Ms Marsters: How does this compare to other towns? Is attendance in Sharon good or bad? Is it dysfunctional?
Mr Nebenzahl: Does that matter? Is attendance a valid criteria for success? How important is voter participation compared other criteria?
7. Reproduction of Documents the Commission receives.
Mr Nebenzahl raised the issue of whether we wanted to receive hard copies of all documents received. The Housing Production Plan for Sharon was recently emailed to all Commission members. Many people are unwilling to read a 97 page document on their computer screens, but the town’s copier is inadequate to reproduce many copies of large documents. The Commission can use the printer who does other large documents for the town, but at a cost.
Ms Tuck: Did not think that necessary, especially those that may not have great relevance to our discussions. Members may not have time to read in entirety all many large documents we receive
Mr Liao: Suggested getting a presentation from someone knowledgeable about the document – such a Planning Board members to talk about the Housing Plan – focusing on sections that are useful to Charter Commission discussions. This information may not be a “decision point” for every Commission member.
Mr Bailey: Some Housing Plan goals may require a structure that is different from Sharon, requiring a change in working relationships. He pointed out that this document is on the Town’s web site and available in hard copy at the Library.
Mr Pietal: It might be helpful to have someone come in and talk to the Commission about the Housing Plan.
Mr Garf: Liked the idea of having consultants in to give us ideas
Mr Nebenzahl: The Housing Plan is more than just about housing – it also has a vision statement. How do we know if a document is relative if we don’t read it and people don’t want to read it on a computer screen?
VOTED to approve 7-0-0
8. Charter Commission Budget
A brief discussion followed about forming a budget. We will need an estimated budget for possible consultant, printing/publication costs, and advertising. Mr Nebenzahl will work with the Executive Committee to form a preliminary budget to discuss at the next meeting.
Mr Liao: The Commission can discuss merits of using a consultant during the budget discussion. We will need to lay out a future calendar and Schedule things on that calendar to plan agendas of future meetings.
MOVED (Ms Marsters) & SECONDED (Mr Garf & SL) that the meeting be adjourned
VOTED to approve 7-0-0
The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM. The next meeting will be at 7:00 PM on August 4, 2008, at the School Administration building on School Street.
|
Minutes submitted by: |
Colleen Tuck |
Attest:
Paul Izzo
Paul Izzo, Clerk