first the agenda the first item is call order which I'm doing second item is public speak anyone I'm G to go real quick anyone okay three discussion and possible action on the draft Charter report so what I would like to do is I I'll I'll I'll go first for the board of elect I was also on the ision commission and I just want to express what was done so everybody understands the majority of these items that are done were not what I wanted done I I had a different agenda knowing that we needed to move a charter revision committee to get on the November election ballot so that we have the majority of the Town residents that would come and would vote Yes or no because in my mind when we do these types of things it's it's appropriate to go to referendum and to have the greatest number of residents that can vote on a subject that's going to impact the entire town it's very important because the town meeting while there
it's great it's 50 people who really do and I agree with Mr Mrs Hutchinson and when she says those are the people who are committed that come to the town meetings but we have a a town of 2500 residents and voters that we sit there and have to include now when I want what I want had done was a Town Council form of government the charter revision committee chose not to take that up which I was I'm okay I do believe there would be better form of governing the town where you take a seven member board combine the board of finance and the board of Selectmen and you allow one board who hopefully you get seven good committed people to sit there and deal with the finances and the U the direction of the community that's what I wanted to do that got off the table now what we did and what happened is as Eric well positioned these he's
like we and these would be the questions on the ballot that would go in some manner I'm not detail I'm just giving you generalizations November elections make sense you know we need to be in November elections the town clerk moving from elected to appointed makes sense we can vote yes or no on that ordinances slightly more confrontational more but it's giving the board that you elected the position within town to create ordinances and then we worked as a committee and bent over backwards to try to make the petitioning process as easy as possible for the for the residents and we we didn't you know the whole goal ended up being efficiency so that we wouldn't redo things we wouldn't call our community members to come to
meetings over and over and over again because we as a board could sit there and say we want a special meeting all the time and we're dragging you out all the time that's not what we want you guys don't want to come to these meetings all the time so we attempted we were attempting to try to get these to push into a referendum at the two major elections now one thing I will agree with Mrs Hutchinson the older M 10% I can I can live withing that I can tell the rest of the board I could live with taking 10% out of the elected number because you should always have more than 10% because we're consolidating the
budget votes that's what also one of the functional things we're doing is consolidating the budget votes so that both budgets are voting on at the same time you should get more than 200 people at that election but if you don't and there's a there's an ordinance on it fine up or down 50% yes or no I get it so I would agree with that that point the financial thresholds which is the the other item we're running at the town with a an operating budget of two two $4 million and if you look at the town it's $4 million from the town $4 million for AES and $4 million for rent the thresholds are extremely low and they call for Town meetings to be called when we don't hit those thresholds so we're just bumping them up slightly right we're not taking any of the financial issues away from the town meeting still having a town meeting the only thing that we're dealing with is as soon as the town meeting is over and the town meeting votes to either lower a line or the total budget that budget goes right to referendum for the rest of the community to vote on so that was that part of it
and then there's just minor language issues as Eric was talking about that were in the charter that really be fixed so that's why we that's why it was done why I've been charion commission did it and I'll actually tell you that that was the first chter revision commission I was on I thought it was incredibly well run Bob hamurger did a great job Carol Lee was on so anyone who sits there and says that the town clerk issue didn't get addressed by the Tom clerk she may not vote for it but that's why we do these processes to give an opportunity for yes no just like the last Charter revision I was a not vote I lost I didn't want the bifurcation of the budget because I think it creates it creates problems within the community it's US versus them with the Board of Education I didn't want that and I even voted to send it to referendum because that's what it's about you send things to referendum and you let the community vote on it so if the community of Andor wants to vote and votes on a bifurcation of the budget then so be it wasn't what I wanted and that's how I think these things should work I just think it should go forward and and be dumb and and you want to vote no on a topic vote no you want to go out and campaign to vote no on the topic go out and campaign for it I'm okay with that and I live with results but I think it's being done for efficiency this whole power grab thing do you think anyone on this board is up here because they have power none
of us work for this community any none of us sit there and get paid none of us sit there and get a thrill out of having power for something overall in this time let me tell you that was ended when Eric stepped into the town Administration creation so as far as I'm concerned it's about efficiency and it's about getting the most voice out of the most people so that they can vote things up or down appropriately next Jeff you want just just to mention the ordinances I mean only ordinances we pass are ordinances that we get emails about and suggestions to do like one of the things we're working on right now is the dog issue at the ball fields people are running their dogs and the dogs are defecating on the ball fields and people are emailing us wanting an ordinance you know to something with teeth that we can go after these dog owners that are letting their dogs around on the ball field so we're not going to propose anything that's people don't want and we're proposing what people email us and tell us what they want to do and those are the things that we're trying to do so my thought after listening to everybody today is that I can see the ordinances going to referendum but I would think maybe we should have if we want to put forward an ordinance anything for the six months up to election or a referendum we send them all to that referendum and have the town people vote on all of them instead of go
through this petition that's my thought Scott all these things that we've been talking about tonight are all things that we've been through you know we've been on the boards and the boards previous to this all these are problems that we've come up with over the years that are finally getting straightened out so that that's why they're all it's not some conspiracy nothing to hurt anybody nobody here wants that we all want to straighten things out to make the town move smoothly that's all we want here and I think they did a good job of it it's a lot of you know up and down you
got to figure it all out but we all did it for the betterment of the Town Paul I think you all said what I was thinking actually Jeff Murray brought a good point about the ordinance we you know we're we're reading the Facebook post the emails we're we're listening to our neighbors we live in town too so we we don't want to pass something that's going to you know affect us negatively too so I think Jeff just really summarized that I mean we've go to meetings people have told us you know like the thing about the ball fields we've seen the Facebook posts we've seen the emails and it's just people want us to do something that's what we're going to do I mean we haven't heard anything that people want to run their dogs on the Ballfield just people for dogs just one while down there it's I'm down there every day getting people off that ball field every day and it's the same people all the time with eight signs around the field y all we want to do is get some teeth to put the minor ordinance in Define to find procedure for people doing you know going against the ordinance and bringing their dogs on the ball field we got kids play on I don't think we want our kids running in F's a
dog in this case there will be no minor or major or it'll just be an ordinance that's all we're trying to get to at this point is put an ordinance for and I honestly believe that we went well outside of the normal scope of trying to allow people to petition for an ordinance to sit there and get that ordinance on a b so I I just sit there and I go the petition process is in place and I'm sorry I maybe I'm just it's 50 signat if I felt strongly that a future board of Selectmen did something that I absolutely disagreed with I would be going to every one of you in this room and I be saying please sign this paper so it can go on the ballot and it it's not it's not that hard I'm sorry even if I don't want to vote Yes or no it could go on the ballot and you could do that with every ordinance we put forward you could get 50 signatures and it's going to go on the back unless you believe that hey it's a reasonably good can I this is obvious answer how many more members were on that committee I was you only one okay so the rest of the committee talked about the petition process and felt like it was a good thing to move forward to tonight I'm
just stting the off they all voted for it I mean and and what we did is and Shannon listened to that one meeting because I was one in in charge of the ordinance section of this there were every other member had a different section doesn't like we sat there and Jeff Maguire drove the entire issue it was everybody had an issue somebody had you know the the November election somebody had the town clerk somebody had the financial ramifications of the thing and each member he did a he did a really good job did a very good job of doing it my job was to sit there and go and I went with everybody who had an issue as to okay if we do a petition how would it work and we extended the petition from 20 days to 45 days to 20 days within the 45 days until the mailer is received by the entire Community outlining the ordinance we were incredibly detailed
and and to be really honest the to attorney said I was crazy because he's like it's only 20 days I said no I said it's the process that everybody has a chance to sit there and get 50 signatures you you can't get 50 signatures in 20 days I am sorry our our democracy is done so just I was looking here at 301 it says the including but not listed to the authority to approve and enact repal and modify all ordinances after a public hearing and also those powers ener for to so we would discuss an ordinance and then post that we're having a public hearing the next month and so then people can come and express their opinion so you know whether or not it's going to be a no from most people or possible that's it okay that's pretty much required by state law did you have a public hearing before you enact an ordinance you could probably do it in a charter and get rid of the public hearing nobody does everybody does public and an just so you're clear and everybody else is clear we do that the ordinance does not take effect until 45 days so the way I Envision this is the board of Selectmen has a meeting that's 30 days later we have a second meeting
so we're going to get feedback from a public hearing we're going to get feedback at our second Board of Select me meeting we don't have to put anything up the board of Select me can say no at any time to any ordinance that he wants and the board of Select has the authority to repeal any ordinance at any time as if we're taking anything away from the public you've elected us to do a job we're sitting there trying to do the best job that we can and then if you don't like what we're doing well you vote a Sol but if you don't like what we're doing on an ordinance you get 20 50 signatures it goes on the ballot of the entire to it's simple I'm just breaking it down simply but that's what this is about so in the end it doesn't go into effect it does not go into effect believe somebody said that that signatures that didn't count there's a special form you have to get from the town clerk is that correct that's right has the AAL form and make sure it's all and we talked about that within the mailer that needs to go out to the
community to sit there and have on the mailer explanations of the petitioning process and what they need to do the petition valid petition would be in the town C's office it needs to be sat there and set up and you go forward and do it but I'm sorry 50 signatures I mean it's just me exactly the transfer station you can get 50 signatures in an hour register ERS anyway so anyway anybody else on the board of Select want to talk about any of the specific issues that were raised I I have a I have a question but go ahead so I think it was brought up tonight that there was a section missing there's sections deleted all over the place in that chart right so I guess my general question is if we want to move forward with this and we we need to if we decide to fix that how do we handle that well the only we be doing tonight is voting on the draft from the charter you know committee and then what would happen is we would then create questions that would have to be submitted to Secretary of State's office that would go on the ballot so yester so everybody would have the right to vote Yes or vote no on any specific topic that is addressed there'll probably be six or seven seven that would end up being on the charter like the Ordinance one would be one if you don't want the Ordinance one to go into effect you vote no if you want November elections to be there you vote Yes I mean you know point is that you you don't have to vote on that exactly could changes we can sit there and refer
anything back to the Char revision commission if we choose to Y so that's what the board has the power to do we either have the power to accept it in its entirety or push a portion of it back to the Charter revision Commission because believe if you do that you'll have to do it pretty soon if you want to make the deadline in order to get under the ballot but you can't you have enough time because you would have to get I would say your next meeting is I believe on the 11th your next regular meeting you would have to do that at that meeting have a a joint meeting with the Char revision commission and U discuss your differences because this is their proposal do we have to have well let's do the logistics so let's there say Mrs Hutchinson's 10% we want to remove what do we need to you would have to meet with the charion commission and your next invite them to your next Board of select a meeting have a joint meeting with them and try to come to an agreement on that and that probably wouldn't be too difficult but you know if you if that's the only question you have it would't be too difficult at all it all think so we would have to have a special Char of revision commission before Bo no you can we did it that way last time Lester two years ago right no requirement to come back to this group and do this all over again no okay then no the law only requires one public he okay for the board of all right then then I would like to make a
motion to accept all the charter the draft report in its entirety with the exception of eliminating the 10% voting reement for eferend discussion on anything else all right all those in favor I all right so just so everybody here understands the questions will be drafted right after we get back with the charter revision Commission on the 10% questions will be drafted they'll be available for everybody to understand and then you can campaign yes or no up or down related all these items will they put on the website they will they'll be ready before the meeting on the 11th they'll be ready now what about the definition of Mind versus now just ordinances because right now we may we may change that in accordance with one of the sections that will be minor language changes because that'll be an up or down and those minor language changes will be a little bit more detailed that you probably well that impacts that that section impacts the the issue of the of how we do ordinances so it is included in that let me let me say something about that cine and and Scott I realized I'm I'm as obsessive compulsive as anybody believe me and I realize that that's a definition section it's no longer a definition if minor ordinance is taken out of there that's but but to insist that it that it not stay there the way it's written is being
overly obsessive compulsive because sooner or later that will disappear from Charter and it will only be a matter of History all the town clerk's office has every Charter that's ever been done in there you can the history it's important to preserve the history but I I think the best way to address that issue of the minor ordinances is the way that it's written even though it's not a definition anymore it was it's just being your moves so it's telling you what's being done with it so you saying it'll just say it says minor will just say ordinances that's right okay there we because the question Catherine of deciding what is a minor ordinance and what is not what it comes down to it's so generally stated that it comes down to me because I'm the town attorney and I say okay I think it's minor all right I'd rather not do that I'd rather just have ordinances and have them all acted on the same as any other words it usually comes down to money and Fs I mean there are some that are obviously minor but sometimes it's a close call anyone else have anything before we move on okay so we're going to move on to item four public speak anyone else excuse me you take a v that we Mar one thing is I got to admit that the the thought of getting signatures even if it's 50 you may seem like it's not a lot but thinking if I got to get 50 signatures that's going to take a lot cuz I could take an hour and talk to four people you know so if there's a way to make that easier maybe even online an online you know
something on the website I don't know question I don't know just something that's easier understood jul talk about certain items you mentioned section 304 at 72 the term reasonable governance seemed to make a lot of sense to me that the kind of thing he was talking about should be included whatever you come back again know so so just so you understand you question you want the questions written in such a way to approach what Eric told us well and to include what he suggested as they're all any already yeah that's right the question will be written in more general terms but we'll make sure that Julia that encompasses all of those all those issues about thresholds both Scott and I pointed out to the commission just a bunch of things minor changes that you said that need to be made to make the charter flow matter well not just that comport with it's actual language it refers to Provisions that don't exist anymore and whatnot how might those be addressed would they be put to a question or it probably would be better if the board of selectman I don't know passes on those so that they don't even have to be addressed it's well there cosmetic that can be handled by the S right okay we'll sit there tell you about those right shanon in in my mind there's there's one question that's a minor language question and that would fall in under the thank you just I can't speak for Don certainly don't want to but from my perspective power grab was not individual it was an Institutional thing it's saying that the board of Select as an institution is taking Authority that is not the town meeting it's not me all
I [Applause] took I would just like to comment that the term minor ordinance that was used initially it would appear that that was an intention not to include all ordinances the removal of the word minor will not include all ordinances thank you anyone else all right motion all those in favor all right thank you very much