so it is 7 o' and we'll call the public hearing to and any want to speak it's 7 o a question okay changing the dates on the town budget meeting that would now allow us to have a single date to both the town the reference on one day instead of yes they didn't see that mention in thank you [Music] I have number of comments here from from the chapter 3 meeting section 301 I do not like the proposed changes to the town meeting giving the board of selected the legislative Authority for almost all matters is taking away the voice of the people of Andover the provisions for the electors to repeal any ordinance enacted by the board of s and yet making the referendum wait until the next November election I feel it's unnecessary as a referendum need not be prohibitively expensive especially if you just do handwritten votes instead of that machine that we use for these major elections sections 303 and 803 the town meeting the annual Town budget meeting I would only want to see the date moved up the last week of April instead of three weeks or two three weeks earlier all steps involved in preparing the town budget only need to be moved by one week
not completely reworked it looks like it completely working the whole budget which system which I don't think is necessary section 304 special Tor meetings 304d this section about the creation consolidation modification abolition of boards Commission Etc I don't feel should be eliminated I think that should still be there that special Town meetings do this section 304 G grants when discussing grants I realized that the amount it was very very low I don't think local Board of Education should be included in this it said that Board of Education when be involved with this be by State Statute the board of education is independent of the town when it comes to their grants in chapter four The Board select in section 401 I asked what happened to the question of increasing the number of Selectmen from 5 to seven it was deferred to a later meeting at the June 4th meeting it was mentioned and they said well we'll defer this and hold it till but it's never mentioned again I think that increasing the number of SEL would be a good idea section 402 the general powers and duties of the board selecting I think that there's too much power given to just the board of
Selectmen I mean I know I'm on the board of Selectmen but I still feel like we should have a town meeting the people of the Town voting and not taking that away from the people chapter 7 the administrative officers section 701 General I believe that the town court position should remain an elected position it has worked in the past and there's no reason why I can't continue to work that way and chapter 10 the transition and miscellaneous provision section 108 I do agree with giving any future Charter of revision commission a minimum of 6 months to subit your draft report I think you've been rushed it this looks like you've been cramming the meetings in trying to get it done the last minute that that's provision of the depart so I have it all typed out I can give it to somebody who is really in just right okay so not that you're supposed to com is is perfectly okay well it's it may it may be reasonable but I've always question people not to respond okay for B care that's the way it's done everywhere I've been involved okay I mean can't want I mean there nothing we're all friends here okay there's there's just a couple and as far as moving the vote and the dates of we would have to move the annual Town budget meeting to that second week in April because this gives us a two week period to be on with ram which is that vote is the Tuesday following the first Monday of May that statuto cannot change so that's why these dates are specific where Board of Finance has to have their public hearing at first week of April
our annual Town budget meeting is the second week of April and it automatically goes to referendum on the Tuesday following the first Monday in May so that's why that date is pushed up and everything is just pushed up really by about 30 days the goal the goal was to have one ref for the next wall not two that's all that but my comment was this because the ram budget was just that vot a week before ours so why do we have to change it by more than a sense time for people to get the noce out in the mail that the so we still have to get the notices out this gives everybody two weeks to apply for an absentee ballot if they're not going to be there on that day so and then just just so and I only want to respond to one other issue you brought is that we did change to not wait to just remember we said that if there was a an ordinance that the board selectman wanted to pass and it got petitioned it would go to either May referendum or the November ref so not just November but what you mean like the budget referend so whatever would be the next scheduled event that we have rather than SCH special ref for that I the whole goal is to not more com and have more days where we don't have more participation so more participation not less participation because in our town meetings in our town meetings
honestly we a 50 people at those time meetings and and the goal would be to send it to referendum to get more participation to allow more people to be able to vote on all these issues so that that's it don't see that it seems to me like it's just not it's taking away the voice of the people because they can't come out to a town meeting this we've had the town meeting in Handover for many years 100 years probably or more we're still a small town I can't see changing my voice anyone else yes I I'd like to do two things one is Shan L can't be here tonight because a conflict asked if I would read her letter and I've got copies for for all of you and I can I can forward it electronically if you want to she asked that this be read into the record which I asse need ends up on the minutes somehow attachment to minutes I've got one on my own so I may be a few minutes if that's okay yeah okay so shanon's letter I'm not even try to do the Shannon voice and I'm not going to read word for word a lot of it overlaps with what an just said and mine does too you were all independent for I know yeah at least
mine was independent the other two she says thank you for all the work you you do and have done to improve the charter concerned of the following Pro proposed amendments to the Chart I do not agree that the position of town clerk should be appointed by the board of selectman instead of elected by the citizens of hand over an appointed town clerk creates a possibility that if three members of the board of Selectmen had some disagreement with the town clerk those three Selectmen could choose not to reappoint that town clerk a vote by of citizens does not allow such a precious result even more troubling about the proposed amendment to the Charter in this regard is that the appointment of the critical position of the town clerk would be left to a newly elected bard selectman which is likely to include one or more selectman with little or no Knowledge from which to make the best informed decision about the town Town's position should remaining left your second pointen a typ off I'll just give you the paper with that stuff on it the third by far our biggest one is about the you do not believe there's any need for legislative Authority in the town to change the town we need to join Authority the board of Select I believe that such a change is not in the best interest of you first in my more than 20 years in Andover I do not recall a single matter it was of such emergency nature that it was not adequately addressed by a town meeting in section 406 of the charter already provides for emergency ordinances many references during the commission's meeting have been made to the to to the need made to
the need to address people's violation of the no dog policy on the Town Memorial Field and mide drive and the Wast that dogs leave on the field if a minor ordinance does not already exist in the 79 pages of ordinances on the town website to address a specific issue it can quickly be addressed by the board of selectman's authority to act enact minor ordinances given that no dog sign to located around the field it may simply be a matter of enforcement instead of a need for more legislation second I do not believe that it was in the best for the town that the board of Select would become the both the legislative body and the board responsible for the town's budget because there is need to be separation of powers between the person trains in the policy creation third well I appreciate first s inquires the we that if a given legislative Authority by amending the charter the B of s would not promate unreasonably unreasonable legislation I do not believe that the onus or determining the unreasonable should shift to 50 and citizens to be required to quickly petition to repeal such legislative act why I S keep the town meeting as a legislative body instead of requiring 50 citizens to
petition to repeal whatever the board of Selectmen and ask citizens don't I'm going to skip the rest that she goes on that she says that in her time I know she never felt like to too many count meetings was a problem and she suggests if if you really think this it should have more legislative Authority a compromise might be that you know in the spring and the fall election the board of Select propos ordinances to go to go to the town meeting there's another type all mention in there she says she I believe that the proposed changes to section 803 need to be further amended to provide for the town's budget it's possibly amended by a town meeting for such only to provide to to referend I'm sorry should have read this over before I came it have been approved by majority of the voters as currently proposed doesn't seem to be
a description of this requirement and she asked what the mechanism is for addressing the town budget if the Region 8 Board of Education buzet doesn't pass if i' had seen this with enough time I think I would told her the answer to that but from the Ram Board point of view if the Propst changes to three the propos changeing 3 or four F in the proposed Chang I do not believe that a special town meeting has oversight to require votes to allow this local and the Board of Education to participate in any federal state or private grant program I'm going to address the same in my point I'm going to skip the rest of that finally I believe it is critical to allow and numers voters on the ballot this November to vote on each separate proposed amendment to the Charter and the board of Select proposes be so that's Shannon's letter if you want to respond to that that's fine but she's not here to actually speak for herself mine covers much the same point so can I have a copy of that yeah I'm going to bring it right now just I'll give you a copies of M as well actually anybody here want I should ask before we long yeah you so that shs I I do much the same thing in my letters I guess about the same number of words of P half a page longer so I start with the same thing thank you for all the work you're doing here you
have crammed in a lot in a short time I'm impressive I'm also concerned by that this has been very hurried that we should have this in front of the voters before our presidential election sounds a little more like an excuse if we really wanted that why didn't we start it earlier doesn't doesn't seem like a a strong reason for for speeding this up so much my big concern is that as far as I can tell none of these changes were available to see to look at before Monday I looked on the website Friday and Saturday I think and it was nothing there Monday I finally saw this document with the proposed changes managed to read through it know did the Delta the document with the changes to the U here this is okay this is
sh thanks yeah mine afterwards want to read along I have okay yeah I'm not read one Shan's this is mine you got Shan is there oh okay yeah okay can I see what the doc you're referring to I'm talking about the the one direct report not not the short one just the changes but the the full document of the changes the full Charter of the changes mixed in the other one was on an attachment to the most recent unes it was just the Deltas but not the the full full Charter this this is much easier to read and understand fall so yeah I I was concerned by that you
know the Public's chance to react is right now and that's pretty short from when this 30 or 40 50 Pati whatever it is thought was made available on Monday all right so I've got a bunch of notes there first one is a bunch of more technical things either typos or like this thing that's in the section on definitions is in the definition it belongs somewhere else if anywhere the election dates are obvious yes no big deal I could luckily go along if mam Vice chair mayor was promoting the idea of a elected an appointed Town CL but I don't like the idea in general the 23d now now I got my notes but not the document FR me but oh yeah why why why newly elected roles start so soon it it seems it seems fast to me seems to me that there should be little transition period why not January 1st or something like that it's some these are minor concerns and the I'll talk about and Below on the the whole changing the legislative Authority something there's something about effective dates 45 days out how does that affect an ordinance that says as of October 1st you know I just don't know how it's it's a question not really
concern but you know I don't know that we haveen like that but I tend to see a lot of Provisions passed in general say that's such such a date now we say this going to take place take effect 45 days from whatever it's it's just a weird connection and if if we need that 45 days if we need it done that soon then why when they fail do we send it out for six months seems to me that that at that point if they're important enough to do in 45 days then we should probably have special referendum but not important enough they can be scheduled that far in general you know if they're
you know we want to change this but it's not urgent I I don't see a problem with that the 301g I'm I'll talk about fall just technical things why do we have a specific date October 15th in you know one section the very next section 150 days before the end of the fiscal year can't they both be the same style you you know both say October 15th and whatever 150 days before that date is rather than combining the two in the document again that's that's my there's a typ all between 803c and 803 802 802 802c and 82 D just the word Year got shifted pretty clearly got shifted from one place to another we something was for 85 days which struck me as an unusual number but it may be the same kind of thing car was talking about there about it just have to be so far behind but after this and 85 might be requir if it's not 90 days seems a much more logal number you know just 85 is weird we're all used to things measured in 90 days 30 days 60 days 90 days 120 whatever 805b I'm just going to leave you for you to read the Tex is quite confusing there's I I'm wondering if there's any legal requirement that we have figures and dollar figures down to the penny in here 200,000 if that's required if not easier to read without no it's not okay and in that same a5b we use the
budget as approved by the board of Finance shouldn't that be approved at referendum and that is that is the final Authority on the budget so it get approved by the board of finance and rejected by the voters does how does that react how does that interfere here how does that interact what and yes like Ann said the minimum six months for the charter is a very good idea I can imagine why it's put in there so the commentary is L us into three things here one is the legislative Authority I don't see the need we we don't have emergencies in town that require that if we do we have authority to act and if not it's you know what's it 7 days or 14 days for a announcement of public meeting but it's not it's five days there only five days it's really not that hard a real emergency we're going to deal with no matter what and if it's not to cover some real problems we've had but it's only through the convenience of the board of Select another town manager then you know what democracy messy democracy can be slow but democracy Al also a very good thing to have and our little New England Town democracies are one of the few real remaining
spright democracies there are I think it's good to keep losing it just because things are a little slow without Strat and I'm especially bothered by the the process for Ling for overturning an ordinance I think the the idea that well not enough people come out to vote then oh they must have meant it they wanted it it's it's basically how it reads I no people don't turn out to vote then then we probably shouldn't be passing ordinance I have the same concern both Sharon shanon and an expressed about the T town clerk's position I'm not going to read it but it's it's the same thing I think that it's worked well for us in the 25 years I've been town of course we' have the same town clerk for those 25 years we had other ones prior to that yeah of course we could so elected yeah and I I think I've got to say Carol has done a fantastic job in that so if she is interested in that and she's for it I'm I'm fine with it but I would rather not see this in general General thing and the same concern about the Board of Education grants I've got the book on Connecticut education law and I haven't been able to read everything related to that in the two days since this came out but I'm pretty sure that this is actually illegal that we cannot do that the board of education is responsible for that and there is no external oversight Board of finance of course can say well we're not going
to you know we're not going to agree to that budget the town can obviously reject the budget but we can't micromanage much of any of it that includes the grant process I may be wrong I hav't finished all that material but it's the book is not Fick and it's not all in one place so that's it I there was supposed to be a final fent on here but I wrote this in a but thank you very much for the work you guys have been doing I do disagree with some of the major concerns though and one thing I didn't mention I didn't read is I am concerned about how needs will be presented how many different yes no roles that that we're going to have but if they're not sever enough I will have to argue hard against this this chart because I think some of these points are really bad some of them are you know pretty necessary there change the dates and all that I think so I'm hoping that this is broken down into lot of small pieces if it's not changed before tonight's meeting so that's it sorry for being very longwinded me to email those be easier if I emailed you copies of those this is good thank
you anyone else let's see I just wanted to say that I would think that something of this importance would we would get a mailer and I don't know if I didn't get one that was sent out but just happened to notice in the River East which I don't always look at it but that there was a meeting was it 15 Monday and then it to a friend who told me that there was public speak today so it's kind of like I just happened to know about this and I feel like Charter revision should be you know there should be a notice sent out in the mail that there's going to be changes and this is your opportunity to speak the other thing is I hav't really put a lot of thought into this but I did see part of the meeting talking about the town clerk you know going from an elect an elected official to appointed and you know a good point was
made that an appointed official would be somebody you could draw from a larger crowd you know like say someone from Simsbury or whatever some other Town never even heard of Andover they wouldn't come you know to try to be elected cuz who would elect somebody who you never heard of before you could probably find some very qualified people and Carol you've done a wonderful job and and yes it's work for 25 years but just because it's work for 25 years doesn't mean it's going to continue you know things change World changes sometimes we have to change and if other towns are doing it other ways it might be good to you know see how they're doing it that's just my thought if I I had a quick followup to something it's in my letter an important point was one of the things about this speed this process is I spoke to another volunteer for this who never got notified never never learned that she wasn't chosen nobody notified her when I mentioned something about that last week she said oh yeah when's that started it's something went on there and and that bothers me Dennis well I like to clarify a few things in terms of the process of and in other the the process this is just a one part of process after this after this process is completed and the the the commission comes up with the final report it goes to the board of
Select there will be public hearing there Board of Select will decide what to send to the voters in November if they do it in November I can tell you this though if it if it if it's sent to the voters anytime other than a general election it will fail it will fail there's no way I've never seen a Char pass that wasn't with other things on the B because you won't get the turnout for it and so anybody who does this kind of thing any town does this thing usually does it in November if there are elections in November whether it be you know the local election or the or the state election the presidential because the you have to get a certain number of people to turn out certain number of people to vote Yes and it's not it's larg but not doable as a you know just like you talked about the town meetings Scott and town meetings are attended by a very small percentage of the population I'm all for democracy too perhaps as much as you maybe even more but I like the idea in situations like this of representative democracy and the question is is whether it's Endo big enough for representative democracy or is a town meeting type movement type
town meeting in this day and age when people are stay at home watch television I know the younger crowd do CU I have grandchildren they they don't go anywhere I can't even get out throw a ball around and they're good athletes but getting people out for Town meetings I mean you might get the same crowd all the time so that so what that amounts to is that you elect your board is selected five members they they campaign you know who they are you get a chance to vote for them and the people who come to town meetings nobody votes for them and they're a small group relatively small group you now have a a minimum that we have to have I think you have a quum of 25 so if you get 25 people together at town meeting that group that self- selected gets the chance to pass ores that to me is not democracy not quite not in a town how many people how many voters are 2,000 25 2500 25 people is you know that to me is not democracy but that's that's just my own personal opinion I'm I'm more interested in in in talking about the process and how it works and it's just not this is just a a an opening stage it is not the final stage and the board is selecting who has more control over what goes what goes and what doesn't go to the voters and and qu to answer your question about does it go in one one big package no it's broken down into issues and and something like this with a lot of U you know relatively a lot of issues into it you might get CU I would work
on that with the with with the board select you might get five or six questions and that's you know sometimes you have one as to catch all with minor stuff in it but no you don't it's not it's not voted on as a a single package and that's another way that the voters in November I assume be turn up know well I hope so too I hope everybody votes I always do and and because I'm not only been a lawyer for 50 years I've been involved in politics for 40 years more than 40 years and I like I like elections I like elected people being elected and in most
situations I was a probate judge and I was elected and a lot of people don't think judges should be elected but I kind of think they should and the town clerk that's a that could go either way in my in my opion but you know somebody said as you said you have you you know if you have somebody on car Le who is terrific and lives in town wonderful but if you can't find somebody who's who wants to do the job and who has that capability in town awful lot of towns including my own town I have going to appointed Tom clerk in fact my story is that I was the Democratic party chair and that happened and the person who was the Tom clerk was a Democrat was very popular and I tried to talk to out of it I said no no I want you to stay in the ballot you you're a votg and you bring you bring a lot of people to a democratic line and she said no I really don't want to go through the electoral process again I said look whatever you want I'll support I was also the chairman Char bu commission Carol I think whatever you want I would support if I run this Commission but but anyway I mean that's to me that's not a that's not a key issue there are advantages and disadvantages to that the advantage being you know you get a larger full potential evence and and as Carol knows and as anybody who's ever
worked in the town L knows you got to have a good time cour if you don't you're in big trouble you're in trouble of Plenty so you know that was that issue but you brought up something you thought was the legal was in here and I I'm I'm very very on the U the dichotomy between town government and the Board of Education okay I've dealt with that a lot of times including this one and there's always arguments about that because because the state constitution gives the responsibility to educate children to the town but but but but the school property is owned by the I mean to the board board of but the school property own by the town so you get we had this problem you remember huh okay that was an interesting issue you remember Tom money who came to one of the meetings he's an old friend of mine we worked together on I have I read this book too and and I he came to one of the meetings and I think he clarifi things quite well but anyway you said there was something in this that is you think might be illegal and if there is in my mind we never changed terminology about Board of Education in the
current change it well in my copy it seems that it was added Angela the local Board of Education G now let's think that through oh excluding right so it's weird Okay so that's that may be exclud Carol do you have that in years that's 204g I do have that in mind because originally it said in excess of 2500 excluding the local and Regional Board of Education Yes actually langage still in there right and then the other language below it's it's it's not only might be it's very confusing between the two Clauses well well that is there certainly confusion we can remove that then because I don't we can remove yeah I don't I don't think they you know I don't think anybody wants to take
away any kind of authority from the Board of Education that is wife Board of Education as I've said many many times there's no stronger support of public education anywhere than me so I don't I don't sh sh oh I think I but Shan at the board meeting today there was enough important stuff she couldn't make this okay but yeah if if we if we stuck that and the local Board of Education from that I would have a check well it's it's it's it's in there as an exclusion above and then it's right and now it's added back in so yeah I don't know how it got in there maybe it was me maybe it was somebody else but I I don't does anybody have a problem with striking that well we'll do it okay so so just consider that okay anybody here and I can see Jeff is getting tired of listening to me as he often does but I can actually talk it's your birthday and I cannot my birthday you can take me out of the room but anyway that's something to consider for you all okay the other thing I want to say at the outset and I'll shut up is that yes this group took on a lot of issues in a very short time that was was there a choice I do not think that was the intention it's a small group it's only seven members you're missing three members today everybody from my standpoint worked very hard on this and compromised and came up with a I think a pretty good pretty good plan that you know if I were local pres I wanted to go to the voters in November
yeah most of it all of it except for that mistake you pointed out because it can always be rejected the peace meil you know you know there's going be several several questions I don't know the you may want to revisit the town clerk issue now now that it's been raised by Scott Shannon and and andu okay and then you had you had a contr I'm just trying to help Jeff I know you don't want to hear more from me because I do have a reputation as being well you remember Bill Curry I local I local Bill Curry in with them and they try to shut me up all the time and nobody shuts me up than Jeff Jeff you're not the chairman I'm just telling you I'm not in chair you're not the chairman she is she so if Carol wants to shut me up I'll show up well you have any questions for me I will but I just want you to know that the process is this is just the first stage of the process the next stage is for the selectman this gets the report and then they decide what to do if they have any differences they can send the differences back to this group they can get together try to iron the differences then the board of Select is the one is the body that decides how to State on the B breaking it up with the questions which I will try to help Carol will try to help of course we B do and you know it doesn't doesn't go to the vo as the package all right I I I will I will pass to
the next speaker i' like to say just to followup what my comment about the town CL was that I don't know about you Carol but I don't think you're going to work forever so we might have to have another town perk at some point so that's just my thought and then I remember your name but he said something about about the town yes I'm denn yes I got everybody I'm disappointed I don't know everybody but you said something about the town meeting that made me realize that most the people that are at the town meeting have a vested interest in the outcome of the budget that we're talking about so when you look around at the meeting it's always people that are there have an actual interest in it so it's true what you're saying that you know we're actually allowing minority people have a large percent a large say in what happens to our town just based on those few people that show up because I know as a an
individual who just tries to be you know on both sides I don't try to you know be just on one side I try to look at all sides and and just try to be a person that's going to think about the whole town in general anyway I've tried to get a lot of people here people don't come to the meetings it doesn't matter what you say you turn you know rbe them or whatever they just won't come unless there's an actual interest I have said well if I have a case of beer in my car you would you come maybe but no I'm not going to do that well there was a time when I was first here where the decisions were made by that group it was no refer was never referred to a referendum and it was deemed at over a period of time that it was a much much more democratic to open it to those that could not attend or would not be likely to attend and they needed a bigger pool of Voters to contribute votes to pass a budget every year so then we went to having it passed to referendum which is fair because everybody gets a chance not that everybody takes it and most people assume that people that went to the town meeting know what
they're talking about so they'll just let them do the yeah but then they'll complain over tax level on some item or another in it and they put their opinion in by voting so it's the fair way were you are Town wi when that took place or was that before I've been to town Atty for 20 27 years no 27 about 23 24 I think it was before that it was around 2001 I you don't remember that particular vote happen before I move to town yeah okay so that that I'm going way back because I was here went to the refer yeah yeah well that's just so we can move on to the meeting is there any other public speak just a com you know our best thoughts for B is there cover yeah we're actually going to have a meeting I don't think so do we need a motion to adj public justj it so yeah you should adj the public hearing I'll make a mo you call is approving our minutes from last week and the week before comments I'll make a motion you makeove lastek I'll all in favor now our next order of business is discussion and possible action on any of
the charter revision issues so would you like to address 304g yeah I'll make I'll make a motion to amend 304g and strike the and the local of Education from of just for board board right that I don't a I so that was made creation of I'm so any further discussion on this okay all in favor so car I I would like to just talk about the town clerk just as a side things the town clerk is the town clerk's position in in our community is very important Carol has done a great job no one will ever argue Carol has done a great job but just like we had to move away from the first select being the true Chief administrator of the town and higher a town administrat it's made our town better and it's made us more efficient so as we move forward and Carol I I don't want to hate you any more than you engag but as we as we ate you know we're extremely lucky we're extremely lucky in our town that we have someone that runs like Carol but as a as the first select men you were never that capable of finding the right candidate Time After Time After Time After Time and and things do not improve every time you get a new person elected into that into a position so it's it's not everybody believes it's trying to take
something away it's not trying to take anything away it's trying to plan for the future it's trying to make sure that we have the opportunity to have the right person in a position it's not three members of the board of Selectmen are going to pick a fight with the Town Clerk and throw the town clerk art it's trying to get the right person Carol I totally get where Carol would want to come from which is you could keep running forever and win there's not one doubt within this town that the more every election you want to run you're you're going to win absolutely the issue is the issue is though when she decides not to when she wants to retire what happens to the town and and this is what
this is about so everybody understands that it's what happens to the town so I I just wanted to De cleare that because everybody's sitting there saying we're trying to do something negative to Carol it's not not about car it's about what we're doing for the town moving forward because we need a qualified person in that position and it's just like what we did with the town ad [Music] Ministry but care again we come back to the says if it's not right I am this was Adrian's part I'm totally neutral okay we what so you're good you may not believe totally because of of Dennis's issue about election and being an elected position I like I like what's in the draft okay I think it's okay but I you know I'm car on so thank that anything else that was brought forward to us at the public
hearing any member would like to revisit in our proposed raft so one IEM was increasing the board selection from 5 to 7 that was Jody's research to correct it goes I mean me me on that Bo it goes back to the whole community and the whole town in having enough volunteers that are that are qual for all of the this started with me saying that I would have a seven member board but I would consolidate the board of finance and the board of Selectmen so that you have seven volunteers not not what we currently have which is 12 volunteers and so this did start with me and my initial proposal to or that I wanted them to consider ative commission which was a Town Council because I feel that it would be in the best interest of the community to have organiz a group that sits there and has the vision for the community and also has control of the finances that's that was we decided to go against that so now we still have all of the same number we have 12 potential people we have F and a lot of the members of the board of Finance Dr out and you will sit there and see each cycle you'll have two or three members of the board of finance that get replaced Not Elected but replaced and so the board of selectman does not have that necessary that problem really we haven't had anybody resign since I've been well we had issues but it was not because of personal issues it was there are issues I just don't think I don't think
the I don't I personally don't believe in seven members of the board of Select if you're going to have seven members of the board Finance because now you're trying to get a bigger pool and we're having trouble getting where we're going to be I'm fine with what we did okay any other discussion no so just going to leave the board of Select section as okay all right the other want St public speaking out of order urge you to look at the things that Shan and I noticed as typos or minor R changes that yes we'll handle all the defition were there any technical you mve on that we should or at least talk I mean the public came people came to ask this question so the only the town budget meeting in April hopefully that explanation was good enough with having to bump the dates up just so that we have everything on schedule to vote with the ram budget have one election day vot on for both RAM and initial budget for for both initial budgets it may have to go to a second round depending get but that's that's also covered in other parts of the chart but having it another day costs a lot more money well you just have to get everybody to come yeah if you just tell them this is our first come to vote one time so section one8 they felt that that minimum time to the Charter was a good thing yes the only other thing is and duties so they're feeling there was comment that powers and duties too much power was being given to the board of Select through the legislative Authority from meetings to the board of Select and through the
ordinance process again from my St I'm just going to just Express it's the board of Select and pass and we're not asking we did not when we put our numbers together we said 50 people it's the same number of people that would go to a Tong meeting and if they want to petition which is only a signature and an address right on a form they can petition to say that the ordinance is not what they want to see happen and then it pushes it immediately to a townwide referendum so everybody gets to to say issue not just the 50 people at the to meeting saying yes or no it's 50 people hand right they don't have to go to a meeting they don't have to go anywhere sign the petition they say they don't like this ordinance goes to referendum 2 200 people in Handover who never all vote but 1,200 people 1200 people 1200 people not 25 1200 people are going to get the ability to say yes or no I don't I don't see the town meeting is a is a good vehicle it allows people to speak their mind but it is the same 50 people and all the time and this just spreads out as a city that's all we were trying to do that's all we were thinking about to and I think if I heard correctly it was also concern about deferring it to the next referendum or election rather than after the petition is presented clearly will maybe just bump it up so that we have a referendum to a closer date of that petition that just goes to special special I I mean when we put special in front of everything in
our town it gets me because then everybody's got to sit there and change their schedule to do different things but everybody knows there's a May election everybody and and this is the other thing in the beginning we I was just November right and the group sat there and said don't just do November to May so we did November and May so it's six months part if the board of selectman wants to pass an ordinance and let's sit there and say they want to try to do something in December and a petition comes out and it's approved it it gets not signatures that in or that ordinance does not go into effect until after the May election if it's approved and if it's not approved it doesn't go to affect at all so it was timing and Scott asked a question I know about 45 days and why we did that that was done so that group would have the time to petition within the 45 days so it cannot go into effect so the board of Select passes it at a meeting it has it actually has 45 days after a mailer sent out to the community saying that we're going to do an ordinance we're going the board of Select when his approved in ordinance the 45 days starts when Carol's office receives that mail and stamps it and then the community has 20 days within that that cycle to petition
so we're giving we what we did as this group was give as much leeway all of this as we possibly could so it was 45 days to go into effect 20 days within that 45 days to petition the clock starts when Carol's office receives the letter the mail has to go out stand and if no petitions happen goes into effect 45 days which also gives two Board of Select meetings so somebody really wants to complain about it and has a very good opinion and and reasoning for it and the board of selectman listens to them they could sit there and not and vote to not enact that petition and then it wouldn't go into effect even if one person came with a legitimate argument and the border of
Selectmen listened to it a a 3-2 vote would kill that ordinance because it has two meetings to go into effect so there were a lot of things we were attempting to do to make I go ahead you're so you're saying it could be a ref bud referend in May or the election in November I don't see the May in your it says it in I see the November under it says it doesn't say may it says any other because the November election is a state election legally dentist did it and turn here or with the next in four so if you look at 3014 yeah it says if petition contains significant ballot go through this in cooperation with the office of the Secretary of State stay while scheduled a special res to conduct it simultaneously with the election regularly scheduled held on First Tuesday after the first Monday of the month of November or with the next regularly scheduled referendum immediately following validation of sub petition which in essence means May because it's not a state election May is not a state election at the time referend could
Bud we could potentially change that was that to D deduce that from this so I didn't see thank you hey you could also have more referendums if the budget fails as we know right so get several hopefully it won't most of us want the budget pass unless they're outrageous anyway I just wanted to respond to something Scott said before about the 45 days now Scott the time between the passing of an ordinance right now and the and it's official you know going going place is 20 days so we've increased that to allow for the position okay right Carol know there you all okay I just want to make sure that want to make him happy me so much not to I I don't have any I mean I know that there's differences in opinion but that's why we vote on things St referendum I mean it I've said it before cles to the last charion I didn't believe in all of the issues on the last Charter ofion but I LLY we allowed it push for the referend we got voted on and it got voted on in in an appropriate manner I was on the losing side of that one that's fine you may be on the losing side of some of these issues and some people may it's not appropriate but that to me is democracy and that push it forward if it's approved and you let people vote at referendum and if it wins it wins and if it loses it loses and so we're living with a bifurcated budget but it makes happen people have to show up to to do their part and and participate and I believe the people the group in top that believes in education
has done a better job of getting people to meetings and don't have any problems we haven't had a Lia budget ever I just want to point off one thing that that last year's referendum on the C revisions one item failed right so we had four five item in one thing but it does it is I think that's democracy I think it works out that way usually I know when we have our referendums and win them there's always one item that fails and some you know cuz voters get their chance and they could be two could be two could be two could be please could be all but you know if you've done a good really good job with the then it's don't need once what that if if if the committee has done a good job of bringing it together to sense what the voters want then there's likely the only one that doesn't pass yeah well there'll be there's usually one or two there controver here and they go they can go either way but the voters get a chance and it's not just this group it's not just the board of Select it's everybody this is the first stage so I think that we've covered everything that was brought out of public speak is there anything that I missed you no so okay all right I just wanted to say that what you need to do ultimately but before you stop is you need to vote to approve the the draft as amended because there's been an amendment pass it on to draft submitted to the bo to the board of Select and you know in advance of the deadline and so actually the person who does that is
work right I'll I'll make a I'll make a motion that we pass the the draft to be amended with what we voted on today to the board of selectman in accordance with our deadline of the okay any further discussion okay no all in favor all right so next order bus public speed and because I didn't think it should be a discussion I waited to quick response to what you said about you know about getting people out to vote if we want people to you know participate in deal with referendum you talk about the you know petition process but be a lot better just to put these to referendum forget town meeting and just say okay the you know Board of selectum thinks these These are good things and you know either our next six months schedule referendum or it's all our more urgent Time put referendum that's that's going to a lot more participation than than this process but the other thing I wanted to note is that you just voted to push this on even though I think there are some serious concerns of teog graphical and more slightly structural things that you really should address the typ typ you can deal with but other things like you know this thing like is shouldn't be in 105h it shouldn't be 105 because it's not a definition things like that I don't know if you can change those now so the board of selectman obviously can there there's two different so there's two different documents one is the draft that we have to pass on and one is the charter That We Were Us
utilizing to to to help ourselves organize ourselves through this process and that I believe is what you're referring to that's what I'm looking at because that's in the end that's that's what we're going to have as the turn with the changes in there but I just I just wanted you guys to see if you can look at these things and fix some of them or if the B of selction can you know Shannon had two or three I didn't have and I had that she didn't have but they're technical things you know the wording is wrong it's it's wrong totally wrong or you this doesn't belong here kind of thing there's one point I didn't mentioned it when I spoke before but where you say oh and this is now got the the responsibilities of that section which is you know the board of selected now has this Authority which is in the current Charter listed under the you know the Tom E Authority so your Charter says now oh this section that you're we're going to have later in the charter is invalid because it's not here it's really OD structuring read the not St yeah all right I will I will yeah I I se there one reason why I'm here is to help with that kind of thing if there's there's anything like that that is I would say relatively cosmetic right right and and just about about half are relatively cos okay we will carefully together carefully review those relatively cosmetic Suggestions by Scott and by chanon and and U make adjustments if we only have one item left guess what I will a motion to adjourn this wonderful meeting thank you all for
coming oh we have to vote you seconded I will second just to say thank