Minutes of Charter Commission Meeting July 20,2009
Present: Andy Nebenzahl- Chair, Allen Garf, Paul Izzo, Colleen Tuck, Paul Peital, Abigail Marsters, Suzi Peck, Peg Arguimbau
Consultant: Mike Curran
Meeting minutes of July 7th accepted by a vote 7-0-1 with one absent.
Discussion of personnel administration –
Mr. Curran was thankled for his drafting of Article 4 dealing with personnel matters. Ms. Peck thought there was too much authority given to the Town Administrator (TA)– an appointed position. Better to have mechanics, rules, procedures, bookkeeping with the TA but other supervisory issues ie salary, equity should not be under the same person. Mr. Curran pointed out that the existing by-law would stay in place as far as “administering” goes.
The Chair stated that he believed the written report which will accompany the Charter that mike is drafting is a s important saa the articles. There should be an article by article annotation and he asked if Ms. Peck would agree to draft up a summary of Art. 4. She expressed confusion about the role of the Personnel Board and Mr. Curran added even the need for one. Mr. Izzo stressed that citizens should accept the charter on its own merits, not our interpretation of issues. Ms. Peck clarified that she had no issue with the TA having power over those who work under him, but did have concerns about the dealing with fairness and equity issues. Mr. Curran thought this was minutia and to leave those decisions to the folks in those respective positions. Ms. Peck brought up the Screening Committee for Dept.heads/deputies. The Screening Comm. would recommend person to hiring manager and the hiring manager would submit the name to the Board of Selectmen (BOS).
The Chair noted that the Town Manager would appoint members to multiple member bodies (MMB) where no other manner exists and wondered what we have that this would apply to. Made an edit to 4-2-b
Paul Izzo left at 8:35PM
Discussion of language for job performance review of the Town Manager/Administrator - Mr. Curran’s version was not quite what we wanted and Ms. Marster’s language was added to the draft. Add the following to the 1st short sentence: “according to criteria which shall be published in advance.”
Tomorrow’s meeting will begin with Ms. Peck’s updated version of the charter spreadsheet and held items: Handout of Screening Committee Structure and Hiring and Supervision researched by the Charter Commission’s subcommittee. Mr. Garf questioned if piggy-back bylaws have to be different or can they stay the same? Mr. Curran stated that we would keep the bylaw unless it needed to be changed and Mr. Garf cautioned that the committee needed to review that to be sure we have all the places marked where we need to do that.
The Chair wondered about taking up the procurement issue tonight. Mr. Curran stated that our bylaw states that the finance person is the town’s procurement officer. Ms. Tuck added that Mr. Puritz, the Town Administrator, believes he holds that title. Mr. Pietal looked it up online and Mr. Curran was correct. The Chair asked if we wanted the town’s Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to act in the role of the School Committee? There are areas where the School dept. has the expertise. Mr. Curran reminded the group that the statue applies to all town agencies and the school dept. is a town agency. Not an option for us. Ms. Tuck believes this should be set up in a bylaw, but not have it in the Charter. Mr. Curran pointed out that his language called for the TA to be it, or he could delegate. It was pointed out that the TA and BOS could mandate that all decisions of the school dept go through town hall and that could be trouble. Mr. Curran agreed, it would definitely be trouble – suicide for town officials but the Chapter is very clear- the responsibility is for all agencies, but can delegate and that’s what usually happens. This may not be ready for Labor Day – may need to have capitol outlay take that on.
Ms. Peck suggested we may need an advisory board to oversee the maintenance and prioritize and capitol outlay group makes sense to be the group that could do this. Assign it the role of responsibility and need to have it be able to be carried out. Ms. Tuck added that if we’re consolidating the maintenance departments, then put it in the charter. Mr Peital explained that we weren’t talking about how to best maintain the floors, but rather larger projects – windows, roofs. Need to be able to divorce the funding from the planning. Plan first then go to figure out the funding – we have no one who does that now. The Chair wondered if we wanted to depend on one person though – how would we do that and Mr. Peital suggested togive someone the responsibility across the board. The chair asked if Mr. Peital would draft something and Mr. Garf reminded him that funding needed to be mentioned. Ms. Tuck questioned that she thought we were talking about capitol projects. Ms. Marsters stated that the library has a custodian –not an issue, but we have flooding and a roof leaking – is that capitol? The answer from the chair was yes and Mr. Peital stated that someone needs to be monitoring things like that – needs to be one person maybe a whimsical idea. Ms. Tuck cautioned on designing systems on whimsical maintenance - that all these things should be happening in one department. Ms. Marsters wondered who or what was missing between the custodian and the roof leaking? Ms tuck’s answer was everyone! She asked why are we redesigning and Mr.Peital explained that he did not view it as redesigning but it should be in the charter and Ms. Peck added that the status quo needs to change. Mr. Curran warned that new jobs and new expenses kill Charters and we should try to stay within the existing town conditions. Perhaps reference in the report that we can’t do it now, but should be considered in the future.
Ms. Arguimbau updated the group on the phone call with town counsel seeking his input about the number of Selectmen. She spoke with Attorney Dick Gelerman who recommended three instead of five.
Short discussion from Mr. Curran about charter related issues and the Special Acts list. He mentioned that we needed to retain the ones pertaining to Lake Massapoag waters. The Chair asked Mr. Curran to email a list and cover memo about ones to be retained once the charter is enacted.
Items for tomorrow:
1) Ms. Peck’s spreadsheet “held items”
2) Hiring Supervision responsibility Sheet
3) Defer town Maintenance to next week
4) Discussion of Article 3 – Elected Officers
5) Special Acts lists – disposition list to repeal at the end – address the retained ones
If get to it – the Legislative Branch
Mr. Peital questioned the status of Bob Levin’s letter to us and whether any further feedback was coming in. Ms. Marsters has heard nothing from him, so we’re not behind on that issue.
The chair mentioned that next week we would also be defining the membership of boards and committees – finance Committee, Ms. Peck added Long range planning committee and suggested that the group make a tick list of what they wanted changed or kept. Ms. Tuck said it would be a long list and her thinking is that we should be focusing on large issues to include in the charter, not second or third tier issues.
Ms. Marsters moved to adjourn 10:15PM (?)– Mr. Garf seconded – voted unanimously