Re scheduling of the Town Election:   After our discussion a few months ago about the possibility of moving the date of the Town Election to November, I called the Elections Division of the Office of the Secretary of State to inquire what the MA General Law specified pertaining to Towns holding an annual election on the first Tuesday of November, which every other year would be the same date as the state election.  They informed me to contact the Town Clerk or have Town Counsel present the question.

 

I spoke with the Town Clerk, who contacted the State Elections Division.

MA GL Chp 39 Sec. 9A states towns shall have elections in Feb., March, Apr. or May.

MA GL Chp 43 Sec. 15-3 states that a city form of government shall have bi-annual elections.  On odd years they use the 1^st Tuesday after the 1^st Monday in November.  In even years they shall use December.  There is no known city to be using even years for elections. It’s important to note that a city form of government does NOT hold ANNUAL elections.

 

So the answer is No, we can not move a town election to November, but we can move it to March and hold the legislative session in May.

 

Effective Date of office: After the town election we should allow for a transition period before the effective date of taking office.  It would be an educational opportunity for the incoming person to be brought up to speed on the budget, social service’s, public safety and school related issues and allow the outgoing person to complete in process issues.  We should allow for a 6 week transition period.

 

Attendance Requirement:  An attendance requirement should be built into every elected board and committee.  Referring to the 2004 failed charter 2-5-3,  if a member fails to attend more than 3 session’s during the calendar year, without previously notifying the Town Clerk, then such failure to attend without such prior notice shall constitute grounds for recall.

 

Vacancies:  We need to conduct a full review of the process of filling vacancies on elected boards and ensure that the practices across elected board are consistent; For example: BOS – election,   Planning Board – appointment. 

 

Recall Provision:  Already been addressed

 

Recording Votes:  I believe all votes of elected officials should be recorded.

 

Town Committees:   Committees are formed by charter, bylaw, policy, state statue and vote of town meeting, their statuses are existing, temporary or permanent and their make up is advisory or staff.

 

Presently, there is no central source or database defining the 60 + committees that exist, their form of acceptance & date; purpose; and appointing and reporting authority.  The town is layered thick in committees. It’s a burden on town hall staff, elected officials’ and the public. There are several committees that are not active because there is no staff available to support it.  Ex:  Land use & Acquisition. The system needs to be streamlined.  With the assistance of the Town Clerk, and Tiffany Park, Administrative Assistant, Board of Selectmen we are in process of updating a spreadsheet that was created by the Clerk’s office detailing town committees.  When completed, I will review with the commissioner s to d etermine if any changes are required within the charter.

 

Capital Outlay Expenditure:  The following is a description of the role of the committee from Enzo Monti , Chair. ‘The role of the COEC is to establish priorities among requests from the various town departments for capital funding. While each department is in the best position to determine the priority of the projects within its own area of responsibility, there needs to be established the importance to the town of projects across departments.’

 

At present, there is no open dialogue after presentations are heard from dept. representatives and before decisions are made amongst the members of the committee itself, with the public or with the Advisory and Finance Committee.   Ultimately, it is the decision of the Town Manager as to which project to recommend.  But without the open process for debate and comment, the information presented to the Town Manager has not been thoroughly reviewed.  This is a failure of communication.  We need to provide the opportunity for public input and dialogue with officials including the Advisory and Finance Committee prior to the selection process.

 

Advisory & Finance Charter 2:12

According to the Charter the Advisory and Finance Committee membership shall be based on representation by precinct.  Unfortunately, over the last few years it has become challenging to appoint one member from each precinct.  Two years ago, there was an article on the annual warrant that referred to Pinehills, it was recommended to town meeting by a majority of the Fincom.  It was noted as being odd that two members voted against it, and it was asked why during a precinct caucus.  The two members voting in opposition were residents of the area and in the view of many town meeting representatives were voting on behalf of their own interest, not the town.  We then began to look into the make up of the Fincom and rea lized that there were 8 members between Precinct 4 & 5 and both precincts overlapped one community.  Those 8 members were then a majority themselves on the Fincom.  No longer a balanced committee. The COPC addressed the issue with the Moderator.  His explanation was that there were no applicants from the precincts unrepresented and that he had the discretion to appoint a second member from a represented precinct and was ensuring a level of experience on the committee.  Since then the Moderator and the COPC have met several times to review the make-up of the Advisory and Finance Committee which reports to Town Meeting with recommendations on the warrant articles and with powers authorized by town meeting to provide financial assistance between town meeting sessions.  B efore the end of each term, the COPC has requested that the Moderator inform them of whose term is expiring and which precincts are unrepresented.  The precinct chairs knowing their precinct constituents would assist in the search for someone to represent their area.  Even with the help of the Precinct Chairs Precinct’s 1, 2 and 9 continue to have no representation.

 

Secondly, the appointments to the Fincom are not conducted in a public setting and there is no record of who has applied for the positions. I have heard from several applicants who were never contacted for an interview, one in particular from precinct 7 who I understand has a degree in Municipal Finance, which would be a plus on the committee.  I understand from the Moderator that his time and resources are limited with a budget of $300.

 

And last, the minority report.  There have been times when the recommendation made to town meeting is not unanimous, the Chair of the Fincom presents the majority recommendation but the minority voice is not heard.  This has been questioned at town meeting several times without response, one being that a minority response was not formulated because it is not asked for in the charter or that the members of the committee who voted in the minority were unavailable to respond.

 

With that, I recommend the following changes

1.      Representation:  Move from 1 member per precinct to geographical representation from each village or district and a few members at-large to ensure an adequate level of municipal financial experience along with knowledge of that section of town.

2.      The appointment process must be removed from the Moderator and should be shared by both the executive and legislative branches, with the selection process conducted in an open meeting.

3.      The committee should remain an independent board, not a sub-committee of the legislative branch, and members not allowed to hold an elected office.

4.      In addition to presenting the majority recommendation, present in writing a minority report or at least have the minority voice in attendance to answer questions by the legislative membership.

 

Planning and Development

1.      Clarify responsibility for long range planning a role which is presently shared with the BOS as defined in the charter.  Previous charter commission’s recognized the need as we do for long range planning and therefore defined that the Executive Branch in addition to the Dept of Planning & Development and Planning Board are to be involved in the long range planning of the town. The executive branch acted on their responsibility with the creation of the joint commission of the Planning Board, School Committee, Building Committee and Executive Branch in determining a long range solution for our senior citizens and school children.  This joint comm ission was a success for the town and must continue meeting, possibly quarterly to share information.   

 

Planning Board:  Planning for the long term and improving communication between the elected boards and town hall staff, I would like to see an appointed Planning Board, 5 members, 5 year overlapping terms, one member appointed each year.

 

Economic Development – Ken Tavares made a recommendation that the reporting authority for the Office of Economic Development be transferred from the Director of Planning & Development to the Town Manager.  It’s an interesting concept.  First I would like to understand the functions of this department.  Is it job creation, land development or tourism?  Are they necessary functions that should fall under the Planning Dept?   As it relates to tourism, the Planning Dept co-ordinates event planning for the town with the Visitor Services Bureau which receives town funding to promote Plymouth as a tourism destination.  The Pl anning Dept provides clerical staff support to the Office for Economic Development just as they do for the PDC and IDC. I would like to know if there is there a long term plan for this department that includes growth and new responsibilities.  The reporting authority clearly needs to be defined if funded with more than 1staff position.  I would like to hear a further from the Town Manager and Director of Planning & Development. 

 

Village Centers:  The Village Center Steering Committees are the eyes and ears within the community for the Planning Board and the Board of Selectmen; these committees allow for public review of projects with citizens in an informal setting and discussion of neighborhood issues.  Their existence is critical to knowing what the needs of the community are and under what conditions the community will accept change.

 

1. Suggestion from Nick: Include in the preamble to the Charter:  Plymouth is a Town of many villages.  We also need to define the types of villages: public, rural or private.
2. In the charter there is no provision for appointment of village steering committees.  Charter 3-14-7, states ‘the Planning Board may appoint committees to assist and advise the Board’, it does not mention what committee’s or the make up of those committee’s. I recommend adding another section to the charter stating that the Planning Board SHALL appoint a village steering committee for each village recognized by the town and to include the make up of the committee to ensure a balanced advisory board, 7 members, business or residential property owner’s within the village area and further to allow incurrence of expenses appropriate to the carrying on of it’s work with amounts appropriated to it by the town.   

 Finance Department

Including myself, many have questioned the process of performing a town audit and the timing of when the report is available for public review.

 

In the private sector, in which many of us have worked, we are familiar with the concept of performing an annual audit.  In the public sector there is no requirement that a town or city must perform a routine audit unless stated so in their bylaws or charter. In many smaller town’s they conduct an audit every 2-3 years or when the town treasurer leaves office.  The Director of Finance, Bruce Miller highly recommends that we conduct an annual audit.

 

The town annual audit is performed by Powers & Sullivan, they conduct the fieldwork after the fiscal year has ended in late Fall to early winter, substantive work in January with a final report due April/May.  Presently, they are wrapping up the field work for FY 2006.   A few of you have mentioned that the last report available is FY 2004, that’s correct; the report for FY 2005 is waiting for a correction before being published.  Any specific questions may be directed to the Director of Finance.  FY 07 audit will be placed out to bid.

 

The carrying out of the annual audit is up to the discretion of the person holding the position of Director of Finance.  With an operating budget exceeding well over 100 million, the execution of an annual audit should be required in the charter.