Date: Fri 22-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

charter-revision-town-manager

Full Text:

Charter Panel Rejects Town Manager Concept

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

The Charter Revision Commission was expected to start getting down to business

in its discussion of town charter alterations, just not this soon.

Last Thursday night's agenda called addressing some preliminary loose ends,

but the meeting unexpectedly turned to more substantive matters.

Vice chairperson Mae Schmidle barely got the words "board of selectman" and

"town manager" out of her mouth when member Stan Karpacz made a motion to

eliminate any consideration of a town manager form of government. The

commission had planned to discuss the issue in more detail, but Mr Karpacz

felt the issue was mute. His fellow commission members agreed.

"A town manager form of government does not work in Connecticut," Mr Karpacz

said. "My feeling is you hire someone from the outside and if it doesn't work

out you have to pay him or her off to leave. It gets expensive for the town."

Mr Karpacz believes there's no loyalty with a town manager. Further town

manager discussions were voted down, 8-1.

The idea of doing away with the board of selectmen and bringing in a town

manager had been recommended by a handful of public officials as a way of

streamling the town's government.

Former first selectman Jack Rosenthal noted the town's current form of

government has been doing just fine. He opposed the change, pointing out that

a town manager, by human nature, could have a tendency to work hard to sway

votes. With a 12-member council, the town manager, he said, would only need

seven votes to get something he wants passed. The town manager would then have

to simply get on the good side of seven council members in order to get what

he or she wants.

Commission member Brandt Schneider, who had been outspoken in his support of

having a town manager, did not attend the meeting. Ruby Johnson voted against

the motion, saying the issue had not been discussed enough.

"We really jumped into things," noted Mrs Schmidle. "A lot of people may have

been bored. This was our first vote in a year."

Committee member Jim Smith also made a motion, calling for the creation of a

five-member board of selectmen, instead of three, to provide for more opinion.

That motion was tabled as Mrs Schmidle said she would research other towns

with five-member boards of selectmen, including New Milford.

The commission still has plenty to talk about regarding the current balance of

power between the board of selectmen and the Legislative Council.

First Selectman Bob Cascella has seen the Charter Revision Commission take

away power from the Board of Selectmen in recent years and put it into the

hands of the Legislative Council. As he points out, anything the Board of

Selectman acts on at its Monday night meeting must then be approved by the

Legislative Council two nights later.

"It doesn't make sense to have so many hands involved in government," he said.

"We should make government as streamlined as possible."

That issue is expected to be taken up at this week's meeting.

Highlighting a long list of other issues expected to be addressed by the

Charter Revision Commission is the issue of whether the Board of Education

should increase its membership. Not only would it give majority to one party

but also eliminate the political realities that now make the school board a de

facto appointed agency, since persons are now nominated by the two political

party, which run only enough candidates to guarantee everyone a seat on the

board. A change could increase the number of choices for voters.

As Mrs Schmidle points out, some of the current problems with the town's

regulations need to be adjusted because there are more unaffiliated voters in

town than ever before.

Also, the commission will be discussing the possibility of splitting up the

Planning & Zoning Commission into two boards and considering whether to make

membership on the Conservation Commission an elected position, rather than an

appointed one.

The Charter Revision Commission will be discussing changes in the current

budget process and either increasing or decreasing the spending authority of

the Legislative Council.

Currently, the council can transfer or appropriate up to $50,000 between

accounts without a town meeting, but members are seeking to increase that

figure to $100,000-$200,000.

Also to be considered by the commission is whether to change the charter to

state that the Legislative Council be elected at-large rather than by district

since its members serve the town as a body and not on a district basis.