Charter Panel Recommends

At-Large Election Of Some Council Members

By Steve Bigham

The Charter Revision Commission is continuing its quest to bring changes to Newtown’s government that will help it meet the challenges of a growing community.

Topping the list of the most recent recommended changes is a proposal to have three members of the 12-member Legislative Council be elected at-large. The entire membership of the council is currently elected by district.

“We discussed this extensively over a number of meetings,” noted Chairman Bill Sheluck. “It was the sense of the commission that the people of Newtown should be given opportunity to vote for more people on the Legislative Council than they can presently. Under this proposed change they will be able to vote for three individuals within their district and three individuals at large.”

The town committees would be responsible for designating which candidates would run by district and which would run at-large.

The charter panel last week also came to a consensus regarding a handful of financial matters within the charter. For one, it agreed that the Legislative Council should not be authorized to initiate special or emergency appropriations. The charter now presently reads that the Board of Selectmen, any town department head, and the council may initiate special appropriations.

“We feel that the first selectman’s office should be the only area where special appropriations are initiated because he is responsible for preparing the overall town budget,” Mr Sheluck explained. “Of course, the Board of Education may initiate special appropriations as well. Under the current format, department heads may go directly to the council for appropriations and the council may initiate those appropriations without approval of the Board of Selectmen. We felt that wasn’t an appropriate scenario.”

The commission also agreed that the first selectman and finance director should approve intradepartmental transfers, and that the council did not need to get involved. These transfers, made within a department, are generally much smaller and can be accomplished much more efficiently between the finance director and first selectman.

As for inter-departmental transfers – from one department to another – the panel is recommending that they be approved by the proposed board of finance and that the limit on such transactions be raised from $50,000 to $100,000. Anything over $100,000 would be required to go to a town meeting. Under this scenario, the council would no longer play a role in the process.

Finally, the commission agreed that the council should be empowered to approve special appropriations of as much as $500,000, up from $150,000. The council would be authorized to approve a number of items each up to $500,000. However, the aggregate amount of the items can still not exceed whatever figure equates to one mill of tax rate.

“We just feel that the more complex the town government becomes, the greater the need to effect these transfers on a more efficient basis,” Mr Sheluck said. “We raised the limits because the budgets are much larger than when the limits were established.”

Also last week, Finance Director Ben Spragg was on hand to discuss needed financial changes to the charter. He also reiterated his support for the creation of a Board of Finance to assist in continued financial analysis throughout the year.

Also at last week’s meeting, member Owen Carney announced that he would be running for first selectman and that he has requested that the Board of Ethics issue an opinion as to whether this is a conflict of interest or at least gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. The Board of Ethics next meets during the first week of April.

The Charter Revision Commission meets every Thursday at 7 pm in the conference room at Town Hall South. This week’s meeting was slated to be held at the multi-purpose building on Riverside Road as the Legislative Council meets with the board.