put on excuse can't hear you many people are talking okay thank you very much you're welcome okay the board of Selectmen will conduct a public hearing to receive public input on proposed revisions of the charter of the town of Andover set forth from the draft report of the charter revision commission we're now going to receive public input who wants to go first Don I'll go first so I do not support or agree on this new chart of revision and I I will oppose it as best I'm able in particular section 10 5H the minor ordinance section 402a the general powers of the board of Selectmen in section 301a which is again with the ordinance and in section 702 which is the town cour I'll go down my list Section 105 is the minor ordinance the elimination of this section removes obviously the public hearing and gives the power to enact all ordinances to the board of selected I view this as an assault on our democracy by taking away the public views and taking away our decision making giving it to five people this section should be restored to its original content government by the people for the people two section 402 labeled General powers and duties the word Powers should be removed we are in power with with the taxpayer with the citizens with the voters we should have the power section A and B should be restored to the original text the power needs to remain with the people the taxpayers and citizens of Ander were not the five select I've attended almost every town budget meeting since I've moved here 30
years ago and most public hearings and I support the current process it does not need to be f next attendance can be can vary depending on the issues but those who make the effort to come to the meetings know that they have an opportunity to speak on a particular ordinance or in a particular Town budget line item take a breath town clerk this has always been an elective position and I feel strongly should remain that way the town has been blessed with Marge and Carol but a four-year appointed position by the current five Selectmen is unwarranted and unnecessary and and I would truly like to know why the Char of vision committee or and over people think kind needs to be changed I believe that the tax collector and the assessor are appointed are appointed as well but I don't see that they have to be reappointed in four years is that correct first lik do you you know that answer that I I can what the Char commission is trying to do is trying to make the town clerk's position more like the town administrator's position because in the situation where you're voting for an individual such as Carol Lee we know what we're getting
sure but the issue is when Carol Lees us what are we doing well I'm I'm confident that when Carol reaches a mandatory retirement of age of 80 minimum minimum qualified people will step forward the charter revision needs to be Revisited this stands as a power grab and our how our town government is Opera for decades we should have a voice and a vote on all Town ordinances and they should be presented at a public hearing the board of Selectmen does not need any more power than it already has our town clerk position should remain the elected position thank you [Applause] all right so most of you who know us know that is very very rare that Don dley I agree on it either pigs pigs are flying yeah pigs
are flying exactly so I I have pretty much the same complaints same objections I'm sorry Scott so Boston Hill Road so I have pretty much the same objections I think it's a power grab I think that we need to keep the Democracy in town the the small town Town meaning style democracy if we lose it we're never going back I think it's been a it's not been perfect it's it's messy it's ugly but it's important and then I feel the same about Carol's position I also at the last hearing brought up a bunch of technical things about the charter and a couple of them got changed but sever of them are still there so this is I think a massive a charter there's typos there's they got to think you mentioned 105h well that's this 105 is the section on definitions and they've got something there it's totally not a definition the I think it's a har process I think that was part of the problem I've got a bunch of others and I will give you guys copies of my notes again what else in in one section we have it says something like the board of Selectmen shall have legislative Authority for all matters not specifically enumerated here and after in section 304 including but not limited to all those Powers whatever so basically we're saying we're referring to this other section was saying we have those but the section no longer applies but we're going to keep the section there so they fixed it at this time by taking out that section all together so now we have language that says that we're referring to this section that doesn't even exist
so I and I think I I think it's a sign of a hurry process I wonder why it was done during summertime if they thought there was less chance of people showing up and responding or if it was just as as they said you know this needs to be done for so we can get it on a presidential ballot which which is a legitimate thing but I think we should have started it much early if that was a concern and a couple other there several other minor things they fixed the other one that that really worried me where they tried to assert authority over the local school boards grants that's that's been removed and I'm glad to see that but awful lot of that hasn't been removed and an awful lot of stuff is just power grabbing don't say enough that's there's my notes I I think that we should as kind of a board should table this or only do the mo the least controversial things changing the dates of vote and things like that bring that to referendum that's fine and then try this again with more time H okay thank [Applause] you these two guys are a hard act to follow I'm Jerry for May I live at a away I'm here for a reason this evening I want to share my thoughts with you you about the charter rision commission's recommendation for changes in our town Charter and also I'm learning things from listening to other people here anytime I go to a town meeting that involves spending of money approving this a $250,000 one mower whatever I learned by listening to other
people I learned by the questions you ask and the answers you yet so that's why I'm here and I wrote this out for myself I'm ad living it sometimes change is necessary I think you're being proactive to want to come up with a plan what happens in she is she's not an easy person to place she loves this town she gives her heart and soul into it and it's good that you're going to get ready for when she wants to retire you you're not going to so I don't have the answer what I would start with is talking to Carol Le and say Carol how would you go about doing this and and interview other talents go ask worked out so sometimes change is necessary but many times it's not our budget procedures I think work well you've got a framework in place why change it if the needs to be changed youve probably heard it many times if it ain't broke don't fix it changes come with their CH changes come with their own sets of pros and cons in order to determine the impact of the changes time will analyzing is necessary as a resident I feel as though the town flew through this start revision commission and they were rushed rushed to get something to
produce quickly so that it could meet the November election day people need time to analyze things and come up with what how do I feel about this we have to process those changes and we have to think about the implications of them and that's why I like get in here with you tonight because I'm Lear a lot of things from other people and and over the town meeting is our legislative body our residents attend Town meetings and vote who votes count it doesn't matter whether I say yes and everybody says no or somebody says no and everybody says yes that doesn't matter what matters is I'm getting a chance to explore and put myself in other people's places in other people's shoes I believe that any time you call for a town meeting to make a decision or put an item out to referendum Town residents are much closer to being in control of what they want for their Town people have had the chance to share their thoughts and ideas or rather have a vote of 50 to 75 res residents taken at a town meeting as opposed to the no F do you wi or any of your board as opposed to having the voice of just five select persons as a residents think about the revision suggested by the charter review commission they should ask themselves this question how does this recommended change impact my ability to have a say
in my local government is this change needed what are the advantages of this change and what are the disadvantages that being said we would like to thank all the individuals who worked tirelessly on the charter revision commission you volunteered your time for many hours to serve the Endo community in this way for that I'm truly [Applause] thankful hi I'm Bob hurger live on shotty Mill Road I volunteered and served on the charter review Comm and in fact I was flattered that they chose me to cheer the commission so I wanted to just provide a little bit of insight I have nothing prepared I didn't really expect to speak tonight but I feel compelled to say a few things just to give a little bit of insight onto how we how we put all of this together as chair I tried as much as possible to be as nonpartisan as possible I didn't want to steer the outcome I just wanted to try to Shepherd the process and let the process work as its designed we had
seven members my vote was just one of them and as I said I tried to stay as as center of the road and neutral as possible I agree that when things don't need to be changed they shouldn't be changed as far as the process being rushed you should know that the initial list of items that we had was almost twice as long as the list that we actually decided to deliberate on some things we decided were too complex we not important enough and that we didn't have time to be able to give them any type of appropriate consideration and so the answer to those was we'll talk about those in the next cycle of the things that we that we did settle on the one thing that I want to give a little bit more insight into is Carol and the town clerk as as Jeff mentioned we wanted we we know that that she is very strong candidate that that she has served the town tirelessly eventually she she's going to retire one of the big advantages of having an appointed position like like Eric's is that we
don't we aren't restricted to someone who lives here in town and one of the things that we've seen time again with the various boards and commissions that we have in town is that we have trouble finding people who are qualified and willing and able and that one change of making it appointed versus elected allows us to expand where we can look and I think that's that's an important distinction there's a lot of other things I could talk about if I was prepared but I just wanted to add those things to the conversation thanks so so Bob can I ask you a question sure now the charter revision committee is it accurate to say that one of the things on their agenda initially was to eliminate the town meeting no no no that that conspiracy theory yes no that subject as you have just framed it never
came up never came up never came to eliminate the town meeting no absolutely not now as you as you pointed out there are certain parts of the process where it would be where we're proposing that it not be included as it is included now but the elimination of the town meeting in its entirety no absolutely was never discussed in any Conta so you're just going to like you talk about maybe triming it back some yes yes in the sake for the sake of efficiency in a lot of cases that's how it spring saving money man efficiency saving money two terms out yeah yeah I think that's probably a fair fair way to to frame it yeah well believe thank you than okay any other questions while I'm up here hi yes about your question about the town meeting I think it's not the town
meeting that was is being eliminated it's the vote at the town meeting is that correct like for the town people that show up at that town meeting to vote in support of the budget is that correct the to meeting will continue in the exact same way can you can reduce the budget you get to ask any questions you get to vote on budget reductions we're not voting to move the budget forward or against it's not an up or down what it is is you make decisions to reduce the budget and then that budget goes directly to the referend so right now the way that the town meeting works is the 40 or 50 people that show up here come to a town meeting and we all raise our hand and we talk about how our budget's too high and then we have the potential to sit there and make a motion to lower a budget item are either accepted or rejected and at
the end of the meeting we vote the budget up or down yes or no and then at a yes or no vote it goes direct the only thing that we we're attempting to do which goes into all of the other issues that we would want to address is consolidating the budget referendum date with the ram date so we go to a onetime referendum to vote both on RAM and the town budget at the same time the first month it can fail the ram budget can fail the town budget can fit and then we have to go through the process again but the only thing that we sat there and did from a financial standpoint other than we did make adjustments to raise or raise some of the thresholds that were app like right now we have a $2500 threshold on a Town grant that Eric can't in the current Char we're not even supposed to apply for a grant unless we
go to a town meeting and get it's incredibly inefficient so what we did is is there's some percentages up and down some dollars com but everything goes to a reference thank you Scott with the exception of ordinances that that's a change I me I know there's petition process petition process which you can force anything to a referendum the board of selectman is not an nonent organization that's going to make these these ordinances where you feel if you disagree with an ordinance it's easier to change to get the ordinance on a referendum ballot than it is to get everybody organized who come to a meeting and sit here it's 50 signatures it's not a lot you know so if we read it it's it's efficiency issue it has nothing to do with power or attempting to to user the authority of the vote of this the voter will still vote on it if they choose to thank you this Charter revision passes a referendum okay we will not be able to have significant input in a public hearing on any ordinance okay so our first s we can say got go collect 50 50 I would rather help fund the public hearing where we' seen many or is the public most of them disre through but we should be able to sit here have them present it and then vote on it we all want to go out and click 50
50 signatures so we have a process we've always had here for the last 30 or 40 years that I've been here I know I don't so the the orance okay they want these or the selectman want to be able to take over and enact ordinances and then if you disagree you got to them with with a petition and 50 signatures in a process it's not just easy it's not easy to do second Town attorney Den yes there has to be a public hearing for any ordinance board s brings up the difference is it's not a town meeting but they would hold a public hearing so you have a public hearing you have an opportunity to talk to them you know and if you don't trust them fine you know do the town meeting but frankly you know how many voters do you have in town 2,000 how many people show up at the town meeting it 50 it vares depends on the well you had a good turnout tonight pretty good turnout Still Still you're allowing 50 people to make a decision well supposed to five
people make a decision but they were elected by the by the rest of the Town by the by the whole lectorate between representative government and town meeting this is this is a public hearing to express I won I won't go the issue is the issue is that any ordinance that gets put up front the board of select any Board of SEL puts up front has to have a public hearing it has to go through the resident then it sits there and it goes through a different process than it currently does that is what's being recommended anyone else anyone different want speak not no no no no different as an individual different come back at the end summarize I always preface my statements with I'm on the Block every only lived in three years my concern was like Scott said about 105 body your name Susan C I apologize Susan camar Senor driver representative I don't know what else I do around j3 anyway I agree with Scott about Section 105 definitions that totally limitated that definition for that phrase minor ordinance there was no such definition left after you cross everything on and back to the election of the town clerk again two three years this is a different board when it was here three years ago so elections work so Carol I don't think was forced to we St her put herself forward for election I don't think anybody was forced to not post her every election I again haven't been here for very long so she could have been voted out of that spot 20 years ago 5
years ago 10 years ago so what difference does it make if Carol leaves or Carol doesn't leave somebody in this town should be able to take off that position or we could just say we can appoint the board we maybe have better smarter people outside of the town bover to be on the board if that's what you're saying we a better smarter person that lives in the town over be the town it's not very El but hat's and I have a question just really quick what actually is the difference between public me public here in the meeting V it's the way it's coming ACR as you got got C to meeting you vote public hearing you don't they vote that's an important okay thank you oh I'm sorry Catherine mcal Lewis o f Ro and over Connecticut all right I have a couple of things as far as the minor ordinance and Section 105 again I agree I can't believe that I'm going to agree with doley I do I'm probably have to f after this up okay didn't get that one that's fine we never have and we still do not have a actual definition for What a minor ordinance is and that's always bothered me so I really wish that we could come up with a minor ordinance definition and as far as having changing it so that the board is allowed to amend repeal leave whatever they want to do without actually having a time does bother me and it's not at all that I don't trust this board I like everybody on this
board I trust everyone on this board I just think that I don't want to take the authority of a town meeting away from its people of the Town that's what it's stable that is what we've always done in New England and that's the way I'd like to keep it and also I think you should just for a few things like I had an example that if you wanted to if this board wanted to I would think change the taxes to be collected anually or by anual whatever you would be able to do that if the should be able to do that we
would not be able to go around is that corre that's not correct because if we did that you would get 50 signatures and go to referendum and you vot it no if you get if we are able to go God who can't get 50 signatures you know you can get 50 signat some people don't even want to knock door the door why would you want to make us go through that why do I not make you want to come here for a town meeting we haven't done a tremendous number there are been a lot of things that the boards in the last four years have wanted to do and we've off because we have not wanted to drag everyone to a public meeting that's why when we have had public meetings we've had six or seven things on the agenda to go through
iagree with that but I also I but I don't believe that it's right to ask change the petition process do something like that then because I don't I don't disagree that we shouldn't be handr by the fact that you need a room full of people I agree with that and I agree that we should progress and do different things I really do but I don't believe that the process should be our only choices now to walk door to door in your 50 signatures okay okay the town clerk I think the major difference between appointed and elected and everybody should know this is that as an appointed no you do not have to be a town resident which is not necessarily a bad thing elected you must be I don't see the issue either way I'm not opposed or I just feel that either way if we were going to do it correctly then Carol would be the person that would have to at least make sure that next person is qualified and can do their job and then you have a a sucession thanks you have a plan in place and what her Duties are so that the next person can step in and go forward whether you're appointed
or elected you should be able to do that the next thing and I'm I don't have a lot I again like with Section 301 in general it's basically saying that you're taking away command or residents to vote in to meeting and giving it to the board of and the oh again right now I think it is ridiculous that it's on the Charter that you don't spend $2,500 or whatever that's in this day in Agia that's crazy I don't know if I think it's okay to up it to 50,000 without a town meeting but I do agree that 2500 is bizarre and let's see if I have anything else I want to say I think I might be believe it or not oh the only other thing was that on Section B of finance and Taxation it says that the boards now the agencies and Boards whatever are going to be
given their their budgets to the town manager rather than the board of finance and I didn't understand why you would want to do that so I would like to have that explained since I believe that's part of the board of Finance D function and not Town manag function and what does that do how does that change the the board of Finance and does the process at all and I think that's it I think that's it thank you [Applause] town clerk when someone's elected to the office of the town clerk are there standards or test certific certifications qualifications before they can run like
how do you verify the person's you know qualified for the position before they run so I can answer that you don't have to be qualified to run any elector in the B over can run for town clerk there is a multi-year process to become a qualified town clerk but you can hold the position without being a qualified town clerk ideally if that's the case the assistant clerk would be the qualified town clerk a town can work with either a fully trained and certified assistant or a fully trained and certified town clerk it's been a lot of years since we've had an assistant town clerk that was fully certified certainly not in my tenure so and the current assistant town clerk is not certified nor is she an
Andover resident so even though she's probably the most qualified person to take Carol's job she would be unable under our current system because she is not currently residing in and now she could choose to move to hand over but I don't think she intends to do that so the advantage there's advantages and disadvantages to both being elected and appointed the advantage to being appointed is that you have a much wider pool to choose from instead of picking one person out of roughly 2500 adults you know you have an entire State and you can poach a qualified assistant town clerk that's been certified from another town which is what most larger municipalities do hasn't happened a long time because we've been very fortunate that Carol has done this job for you know 26 or 27 years cly what surrounding col I know Statewide it's roughly 5050 elected versus appointed so it's just a different you know we we have struggled to fill the position of assistant town clerk pretty consistently and it's been kind of a revolving door hopefully we're stable at that position right now but there you know so I'm not saying one is necessarily better than the other but I think for a small town to be sure you're going to find somebody that's a competent town clerk you know it's guarantee that's for sure but if a town clerk is appointed that town clerk is not an autonomous person anymore right that town clerk director to town manager well I'm a Town Administrator not a town manager sorry yes that person would but remember that the thing that regulates the action of the town clerk is State Statute far more than the individual towns I mean carols is
beholden to state law far more than Town ordinances or anything else but that's state law not Town okay let someone speak who has he spoke okay just something that hasn't been enumerated before this group and I'm not sure if it's clear or not with regard to the the charter revision we're not intending this to be an all or nothing kind of thing we intend there to be six or seven different line items on the ballot in November Each of which encompasses the different concepts that we're bringing here there are several different concepts that have been introduced such as the budgetary thresholds or the town clerk or the minor ordinances and all of these things are going to be put together as separate line items so we don't have to vote yet yes or no on the entire thing we're going to be able to vote these individual items up or down as you see fit that's the first thing I wanted to
mention and my apologies for coming here and speaking extemporaneously but this is just how it how it works with regard to Carol and the town clerk's position car was on is on the Charter review commission and and this is a matter of public record if you watch the videos or look at the transcripts you can see what I'm about to to say here which is that at the beginning of the process she opposed the change to an appointed position and as discussion and debate and various things were introduced she actually changed her mind and she endorses the idea of an appointed position right now just for the record well she voted yes for it we all say that she is in favor she voted yes on the charter rision commission to move that forward okay how she votes her her first of all my talk with Carol was that she was remain studiously uncommitted about this she I mean she told me that she told me she was not
going to make any any points I thought she was going to vote on on that measure either but I'm not sure if that happened or not but the question I really wanted to ask and probably for the process thing do you guys realize that this document that you're looking at is not on the time website I at noon today I called the town clerk got the assistant Clerk and she emailed it to me but which the U the the okay the change is from July 17th the latest version you guys are working with the the the July 8th one is on the on the website that is something that we have to discuss with the Tom clerk okay so Tom clerk who also in Bob's absence was the chair of the charter review commission had all the documents all those documents were supposed to be submitted to the assistant to the administrator and they should have been online they're not I apologize it's in office anyway I just have a quick question because I don't know if this would make it a win-win or not can the petition process be changed can the petition proction process it can be if we voted back to to the Char rision commission cuz I just thought at least then it would take care of people's anxiety about having to go get 50 signatures which doesn't seem like a lot to you but when the last time you went out did to door I I know the DTC if they would like to get 50 signatures and addresses all that's required not yes or no and get 50 signatures the PTA could get 50
signatures the RTC get monst so you say but my question is I'm trying to look at both sides here and not helping I'm trying to ask if the petition process is something that can be looked at and changed and that way you get to our board meeting in our board meeting we choose to push anything back to the the charter revision commission yes it can be potentially amended I have a question about that as well because I was reading all this stuff to be prepared for this meeting my understanding and maybe I missed it in one of the meetings was that after after the ordinance is agreed upon the town's people get a letter and then they have 20 days right which I didn't actually get for this meeting today but and then they can send it back saying yeah I don't like that whatever so that in itself is not the petition process that is the petition so if if 7 or 700 people send those cards back and say no that that's the petition the way is there be petition form in the Tom clerk's office or any organization can go this getes to the Tom clerk's office this letter right it takes seven days the board of Select has a meeting they vote on it this mailer goes out from the to it then getss mailed to every resident within the community the town clerk's office gets one of these the town clerk stance their mailing you have 20 days from the date that the mailing was received by the Tom clerk to get 50 signatures oh 50 signatures for 20 days once it gets there and then it goes immediately to referendum it does not go into it does
not become implemented nothing happens it then goes to referend okay that's part I didn't understand so I could see anything on have done yeah well I mean I I said [Music] but I want to just address to Bob Amber about the town court D you're good thank you the Carol Lee did not commit to say she was for the appointed position she told me she was uncommitted okay so she I appreciate Jeff's clarification and the the the the way that he St St it was clear she voted to advance the item further I's a microphone we need it we got
$20,000 to do a study but we can't we a PA in this place reques ,000 I'm Catherine hson I live on Bunker Hill Road and I have allergies so excuse me if I have to keep clearing my throat I was going to address this last but because it was the last topic before we got up here I'll address it and maybe I again refer to it at the end as was just indicated that if an ordinance is passed then the town can repeal it by filing the appropriate petition to repeal and it does require the 50 signat at this point and if that's the case then the referendum is held but I'm going to read you from the ordinance itself the ordinance shall stand approved by the referendum unless a majority of the electors voting shall have voted in favor of repealing such ordinance provided however that at least 10% of the register voters of the Town shall have voting on the matter any
ordinance not so repealed shall take effect the next day now I read that to me excuse me this what roughly over a little over 2,000 so even though the 50 signatures are obtained approved by the verified by the town cler goes to the board of Selectmen and they set the referendum an affirmative vote to repeal at that town meeting at that referendum isn't enough unless more than the 10% of the registered voters at that point have participated so let's just take for example it's 220 is % and there are 219 of us voting there and we all vote to repeal that ordinance would not be can I have one thing for you any referendum has to occur in the May or November election no special referendum dates no no special dates so it's not immediately it's not immediately it's at the next election or the next it go right what Jeff was saying there's no election there's a budget referendum May there could be an ordinance that's attempted to be passed by the board elect that the residents the town
residents want to repeal 50 signatures goes referendum it would be on a budget vote or on the state election in November no other time I understand I use the term refer vote on that ref is using language that the yeah yeah and I would sit there and and go it's two let's say it's 200 I don't think we've had less than 200 voters at one of those elections ever yes oh [Music] yes budg we you show up got show up my experience is people are interest they show off right all right so I to speak about the portion of the proposed Charter revision dealing with the town meeting that is the ordinance
of adoption ordinances now we all learned I'm sure in our first students class somewhere along the line that there three branches of government in the United States the judicial the elective and the legislative branch here in Andor as you all know the town meeting is our legislative branch that's you and I that's you and I and every elector in this town we're the legislative branch in this town and we come to a town meeting and where we present we ask questions we listen to what other people have to say and we have our say and then we vote and sometimes hopefully most of the time it goes the way we vote but if it doesn't and we don't it doesn't go the way we vote it's still the process it's still the process by which we all get a chance to participate even though we always don't win so to speak a t a long time I think we do a pretty good job I think we do a pretty good job here in the young now there are times when maybe 25 people show up but 25 people are 25 people out of let's say the 20 2,000 or so electors that are privileged to be able to come to that meeting but we had the opportunity maybe we chose not to because it wasn't interested in care one way or the other but it's also been my experience to see so many people want you to transfer the
town to a larger facility we all see that so why should we give up why do we want to give up our right to have a say on the laws that are governing our town as I said a minute ago as we started before again to repeat the revision this proposed would take that right away from us they proposed provision in the ordinance as we started out I started out with it call first we said that filing of the the for exor and yeah that's and the board of s as I said are required to hold a special re special referendum and I'm repeating myself because this is what I was going to finish up with but I started with that means as I said before there that one short of 10% of the lectors let's say 220 219 has come and vote but we haven't met that 10% that that provision is going to stand and become the law here the next day why do we want to give up the right it's very very important right I've heard a lot of good things tonight and I agree I do not want to give up my power and my choice of voting and expressing my opinion I don't want someone making it for me I don't want things decided for me I'm very in favor of town meetings
and referendums some of you I think know that I went door too and got 130 signatures to have a study done about regionalization well little did I know it wasn't an official petition and so it was denied and never went anywhere and I wasted my time I never want to have to go through that again and I think it's unfair to say oh 50 signatures no I I'm very much opposed to that and I'm not sure how I feel about elected or appointed Carol Lee I'd like to see appointed you know I'd like to see promoted within locally that can't happen I guess at this point or to have someone from town
brought up to the ranks and qualified and tutored and and and assisted and that's all I have to say thank [Applause] you 12 maybe this is question the rest in the last how many minces what is the definition of what's the definition we don't have a definition definition but it's not very good it's in the a everything that we voted we've gone five hi I'm lean Hutchinson Bunker Hill Road I'm not going to bring up anything new because everything that I wanted to state has been covered I just want to say that I have followed the process I've attended several of the charter review Zoom committee meetings I've spoken during public speak and I've
read up on all the minutes of meetings I wasn't able to attend and I want to express my agreement with some of the points that have been brought up tonight including not taking any legislative power away from the town meeting I think people who get themselves quote unquote to a town meeting deserve the attention that that brings I've been to town meetings where things went my way and other times where I didn't agree with the final result but at least it's the New England Democratic format that people have fought and died so that we can show up and express our opinion I also don't agree with the process what I consider a long process is proposed for repealing an ordinance I think it's cumbersome to wait until the next referendum and I also just want to
also express my opinion that having followed this process the beginning I'm not completely sure how it originated in the first place I I just don't think it's necessary the way it's proposed so those I just wanted to say for the record that those are the main points that have already been stated that I agree with anks all right second so this document has an awful lot of changes proposed in it and I just want to talk a little bit about CU what I don't want to see is everybody thrown out cuz everybody's pissed about a couple portions of this so number one the state several years ago pretty much required all the towns to go to elections in the fall and over for many years had spring elections we no longer do there's a very cumbersome process to get back to the possibility of May elections which I don't think we as a town want to go through so we out of we ought to make the charter change to officially codify that elections will be in November because our Charter says one thing and state law says another thing so we should change that section in the charter which is section 203 general elections you can make a decision whether or not the town clerk position is included in that that's neither here nor there so that makes sense the second thing is section 210 which covers early voting again that is state law we are simply making the charter in that section match what state law is and that state law now says early voting is a thing so regardless of
whether we have it in our Charter or not we're obligated to do it so we might as well make our Charter consistent as far as the town budget meeting goes the I think the the goal there really was to drive voter participation at the referenda because the reality is we have usually two budget votes a week apart one for Ram one for the town budget we typically get what a little less than 5% of the electorate votes on the ram budget so 5% of the taxpayers vote on 40% of the Town spending by combining those two together and having one vote at least initially
that covers both budgets I think the goal was to get more people out to vote you know so we get a higher turnout and it's more representative of what people actually want so I think that to me is a worthwhile thing to consider the second thing is right now there's no no lower limit on leases you know at which it doesn't have to go to town meeting okay so that means a $200 a year lease for the thing in the town clerk's office that runs the postage through the media that technically has to go to town meeting and there are lots and lots of things like that now I mean if you look at it objectively there's 20 or 30 things that either us as a town or the Board of Education would have to go to town meeting for because we have no lower threshold on that so that's frankly dumb because you know there's that's just too many things I don't think most of you really care you know that we're spending a couple hundred dollar a year to lease the the postage machine at least I would hope you don't you would consider that a normal cost of business so you threat set that threshold high enough so that when we go to buy something expensive or lease something expensive like a plow truck or something of that nature that you all get to say and weigh in on it and you leave the little stuff to the board of finance and board of Selectmen to approve so in my opinion and that makes
sense to allow that that change in the charter to go through so that is section 304e under leases and the other one is prance so how many of you here have had a hand in writing one of the Hartford foundation for public giving grants any of go to town meeting to accept that did you go to town meeting to accept that did you no we didn't because practically there's too many little grants that run through this town and that's all funding that we get from the state that we use to lower taxes and get things done in the town so going to public meeting for a big Grant absolutely appropriate if we're going to spend you know a big chunk of your tax
dollars absolutely that to go to town meeting you should absolutely have a say it but the little stuff I mean you know the the old Cemetery Association pretty much every year they go for a grant for maintaining the headstones well so but the town also budgets money in that line item so technically every single year we should be going to town meeting for that and there are many things in that category so I would urge you to pass that just as a reasonable governance change what number is that that is 304 G which is participation in any federal state or private grant program so that one I think is worth the town pursuing obviously some of these other things are controversial the other one is Administrative positions So currently under Section 702 d and e those are two positions that the town right now doesn't exactly line up with the charter in the case of the director of Health it says we shall appoint the director of Health as mandated by the state of Connecticut well in that that person is a part-time employee well we're part of a Regional Health Organization we're part of Eastern Highlands health district I'm on the board of directors of that I'm also on the Executive Board of that organization so that's a shared service that we are part of but they're not Town employees so our Charter does not match what we actually
do so I would urge you to accept Section 702 for administrative positions excuse me how how would you go about that then if we're Regional with P of Eastern health do you change that to the board select will appoint the director of health because that's because all the board of Selectmen it just ratifies the fact that we use Eastern Highlands health district the only thing you're strike we're not adding anything we're basically striking the fact that it says the director of health is employed part-time in the town because he is not a town employee he's an employee of Eastern Highlands health district but we don't Point them either I mean should that I guess my question is should we be restating that entire because we don't we don't employ them I don't think that we've ever actually followed our CH so we voted we voted years ago to join Eastern Highlands health district when they were expanded and we've been a part of that organization ever since right we pay into it we're part of the governing body that and we get a lot of really good service both us and the school so to me that makes sense the second thing is Animal control officer currently we use nikog which is the Northeast Council of government's animal control services to cover the town as
opposed to having our own and there's two parts to that the first is the state changed the laws several years ago regarding Animal Control fac facilities and the cost to take our what was our animal control facility and make it meet state law is really expensive so we don't really have any intention of going back to having our own Animal control officer and own animal control facility you know technically today Animal Control facilities have to be air conditioned they have an awful lot of standards that we we frankly can't meet without beating building a standalone facility for that
so by changing that this the charter says that we're going to have our own officer all this Charter change does is allow us to use a shared service for that so I think you should pass that I think that's reasonable and that matches what we actually do for governments and then the changes to the way the budget runs just what I want to say right now is our our Charter currently calls that out kind of two different ways so obviously the board of Finance has final Authority for the budget that goes to the public but what happens is prior to the start of the budget process each department head gets submits a budget each department head each commission submits a budget to the town to both myself and the finance director they all get collated into a
budget and then get reviewed that gets passed out to the board of Selectmen and board of Finance so most of what's in here is what we're actually doing now is actually the way the process works for the most part the board of Finance is not doing what they used to do which is they used to hear from each individual Department themselves and they collated the budget and came up with the final budget so with with the switch to a Town Administrator part of that role has shifted to myself and who we have for a finance director so that's to me that makes sense but maybe it doesn't make sense to you and that's pretty much all I have in terms of what I wanted to say so what I would say is just please don't throw out the baby with the Backwater there are sections here you may be incredibly opposed to and that's fine but there's a bunch of things that are just governance changes that make
sense to be adopted so that's it hanks can I ask a question about the $50,000 lease option 304 a 5e piece of equipment from Public Works a small piece of equipment public work that is being leased over a 5e ter would represent a $50,000 item that still has to go to budget and you have to realize that that $50,000 is if we call we we we would have to call just like we did with the mower that just went up in front of town meeting we would have to call a special town meeting to have a vote on a piece of equipment that would be $5,000 and right now I think Eric what's it $5,000 or $2,000 there actually there's no Lim so anys so it it's it's not it's not something that's included in the normal budget because you would get to vote on that you know at referendum and be able to speak about it it's if we if the board of Select called a special meeting on a lease that they
wanted to enact that's outside the budget for $50,000 it technically is not really going to occur very often but it's just setting a different pressure Marcy I just have a question Marcy minor lri what is the process for when the town clerk wants to leave her position or say we hire a new one and find it maybe the town's people aren't happy with a new person what would be the process of that person going well right now we can't because town clerk is elected official and the town clerk is statuto required you know has rules There are rules that the local government can't just go after the Town Clerk and ask the town clerk to leave the town clerk could resign and that's a full other issue I don't ever want to deal with please please let me go before that happens because I don't know what we would do we'd have to have special election we'd have a special election one in town who the Democratic town committee and the Republican Town committee approved would run off for the the town clerk's position that's what we and that that
could be challenging and and Jeff that's whether they're qualified or not a political ARA there's no qualifications for that I mean listen the town clerk's position for everybody that's going it is no different than what we did with the town administrat replacing with first selectman you know administrative Authority because you can never be guaranteed that the person sitting in the first selectman's chair has the capabilities to do that job effectively for the town's residents that's why we did it so you all voted for that there's no difference in the town clerk's position than the town administrator's position it not necess you can sit there and say you want some to vote for but Catherine think of the Democratic town committee who are you putting up for that job that's qualified to do that job effectively for the residents of down not the 50 people that are here at this meeting but the other 2500 residents that need the town cler Services who is
the Democratic town putting up for that job you got any ideas here's my question though this this to answer that is you're talking a political versus professional so that's what I had asked or what I had said before when someone was saying something that currently she is an elected position but she has an autonomy there because she doesn't answer directly to the Town Administrator or anyone else if I if you now appoint her if you now hire someone that person of course has no autonomy that person is going to have to politically speaking I'm just professionally is different but the town little town politics is little town politics and that's not going to change so that position is no longer ton that position is now going to be involved in the political process of the Town administrating the town Anderson one side Eric Anderson's position is a political position right it's it's it's appointed by the board every every two years not every four years every two years we have to renew Eric's contract this board could sit there and say they want Eric out right right and we could we could vote him out and then have to hire and politically do it a why who wants to go through that Eric don't ever me you're doing a great job for this grw don't forget we're not talking about Carol we're talking the town thir Carol's not going to you know she's not going to want to be the town thir forever we're going to have to have another new person and I feel like we've
gotten lucky having Carol and we might not get lucky having someone say the same thing I feel like you know we had some positions in the town office that were very difficult to fill we've hired people that didn't work out if they were elected we would have had a Jim Dandy of a time getting rid of them when the person is appointed there's qualifications and expectations that come along that they have to meet that if they don't meet them we can move on to the correct person in the job and you got to take Carol Lee out of it you got to look at the position and what's best to move the town forward and keep things going the new town cler whoever he or she may be has state regulations and laws that they will have to adhere to as Eric had mentioned but they should be an appointed position and not an elected political position based on qualifications is there anyone who has not spoken that would like to speak one time Eric and and Louise is there anyone else that has not spoken much l is going to go next anybody else I want on the record right now anybody anybody all right Lise you get the last word all right Eric hefen still Eric chefen and I still live on bu I served on the r Board of Ed and one of our most difficult assignments was to hire a new superintendent for that school that is a big big position it's huge for the future of that school we have a we had a board of 11 people and we spent literally months working on this
issue getting it down from 11 terrific applicants to six and now how are we going to get it to three and now how are we going get it to a point where we can have a vote on this right so the effort that we put into that to to select the best possible candidate is a great multiple on what would happen if it was simply a vote if a bunch of people just applied and there was a list to vote how are people going to know know who the most qualified person is right so you know so with people on boards our wonderful board here that works hard for us we have a we have a democratic vote I agree with that right but when you're when you're hiring a professional and it seems to me that carolene is a professional that we need to have a
group of people look deeply into the the people who are applying for this job and and use their Collective judgment in selecting the best person and see you say well how would why did I get that why why did I deserve that responsibility it's because you put me there that's how it works so you know I I'm just trying to speak in in support of appointing a person here where you're able to look deeply into who is applied and and have a good group of people make a a selection on behalf of the town's people who voted them into
that position to do that thank you [Applause] goodwi Lakeside Drive like to make a motion tojn this meeting let everybody know we have another quick meeting after this we're adjourning the public hearing everybody voting this vote all right you conratulations [Music]