Date: Fri 04-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

charter-Schneider-Pilchard

Full Text:

Council Committee Hears Rationale Behind Charter Panel's Work

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

When the Charter Revision Commission first began its task more than a year

ago, it was asked by the Legislative Council to consider making about 20

changes that the council felt would improve town government.

When the charter panel had completed its job last month, it had made very few

changes and some council members felt as if their earlier suggestions had

fallen on deaf ears.

Brandt Schneider, the youngest member of the charter revision panel, reviewed

for the council's charter subcommittee Wednesday night the reasoning behind

many of his commission's conclusions.

Splitting The Budget

Last week, Mrs Pilchard's committee asked that the Charter Revision Commission

reconsider its decision not to change the charter to allow the Board of

Selectmen and Board of Education budgets to be submitted separately to the

voters.

Mr Schneider said the idea seems great until one budget passes and the other

does not. Under that scenario, he said, the budget that passes is set aside

and money is cut from the budget that failed. If that budget goes down again,

the town is stuck with a reduced budget, but a mill rate that may still be

unsatisfactory. Mr Schneider said voters might then want to vote again on the

budget that passed the first time.

"People may think they want the budget reduced until you reduce it," Mrs

Pilchard said.

The charter panel said it was also hesitant to change that part of the charter

because presenting two separate budgets is not permitted under the state

statutes and could be challenged in court. However, council member Jack

Rosenthal said presenting two separate budgets to the voters is not illegal

under home rule.

Pre-budget Hearing

Believing the pre-budget hearing is ineffective, Mrs Pilchard's committee last

week asked the Charter Revision Commission to reconsider its proposal to bring

back the pre-budget hearing, saying that no one ever came to the early hearing

in the past and that not enough information - ie, grand lists, tax rates - is

available to the public that soon. However, Mr Schneider said people will come

if they feel they have been empowered to say what they want in the budget

beforehand.

"If you don't like the early budget meeting then you can go to the last

hearing right before the referendum or if you don't like the last hearing you

can still go to the early hearing," he said.

The committee agreed to support the change.

Finance Director

The council's committee last week requested that the charter panel reconsider

its decision to allow the finance director to be fired without cause.

"I don't see why someone should be removed with no cause at all," Mrs Pilchard

said.

Mr Schneider, pointing out that the decision was not based on the town's

current staff, said the move was made to ensure that the town never gets into

a situation where they can't get rid of someone.

"We were looking at a worst case scenario where someone is here for a long

time, does just enough to get by, and can't be removed. In a worst case

scenario, the system we have now could be a problem," he said.

Mr Schneider said his commission's thinking was that elected officials were

elected to serve the electorate and the appointed officials were not, and that

the protection of the system was to deny just cause.

"We wanted to protect the system and the person," he said.

At-Large Council Seats

The Charter Revision Commission has proposed a charter change that would allow

for three at-large seats on the council. Some Republicans don't want the

change because it would guarantee the minority party at least four seats on

the board as opposed to three.

Committee members Bill Brimmer and Joe Borst both said the idea of having

at-large seats might create a situation where the three at-large council

members were all from the same district, giving that district six members. Mrs

Pilchard, however, said the council never votes by district, and, right now,

eight of the 12 council seats are filled by people living in and around a

small geographic area extending from Main Street, through the Taunton Lake

area and into the Poverty Hollow/Hattertown roads sections of town. She said

there is no representation from Botsford, the High Rock Road area or Lake

Zoar.

According to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), there is no

other finance board in the state that is not elected at-large.

Mr Schneider said there were several members of the Charter Revision

Commission who wanted all council seats elected at-large.