Date: Fri 02-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

charter-council

Full Text:

Charter Panel Won't Yield On Its Proposal

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

The Charter Revision Commission and the Legislative Council don't see

eye-to-eye on some charter issues now being considered for change. At their

meeting Wednesday night, the charter panel stuck to its guns, refusing to

accede to the council's request that it reconsider some of its decisions.

The council, however, will have the final say on the revisions, though

anything the council overrules can be petitioned by the charter panel before

the questions go to a referendum.

The charter panel ignored the council's suggestion to reconsider its decision

to allow for the removal of the town's financial director without cause.

However, it did add a provision that would allow the financial director to

state his or her case at a hearing before any action is taken.

Charter members do not understand what all the confusion is about regarding

its decision. Afterall, they say, the financial director is the only town

official neither elected nor term-limited and the town needs to have some way

of removing that person without cause if he or she is not doing an adequate

job.

"It's difficult to remove for cause. It's difficult to define cause," member

David Chipman said.

But, as members point out, the changes they are proposing would provide even

more protection for the finance director because under the current appeal

process, a majority of both the Legislative Council and the Board of Selectmen

would be needed to overrule a dismissal.

"The way we have it, in the appeal, you need the vote of two selectmen and the

majority of the Legislative Council in order to approve the firing of the

financial director," member Greg Bunger said.

Under the current charter, however, the financial director can only be

dismissed for cause.

Nevertheless, members voted Wednesday to provide a hearing for the financial

director. The provision states, "The Board of Selectmen, with approval of the

Legislative Council after a hearing, may remove the financial director."

Budget Process

During its year-long deliberations, the Charter Revision Commission thought

about, but never opted to change the charter to allow for the splitting of the

annual budget into two sections - school and town. Last month, however, the

Legislative Council requested the charter group consider making the change,

believing it would give the council a better feel for where cuts needed to be

made if the budget was defeated. However, the charter panel refrained from any

changes, saying it would end up splitting one group of residents against

another.

"We've done this before. Splitting the budget can cause polarization," said

member Ruby Johnson.

The council, two weeks ago, advised the charter panel to rethink its decision

to change the charter to allow for three at-large seats on the council. This

recommendation was ignored by the charter panel.

As council member Melissa Pilchard explained, many on the council felt

campaigning as an at-large candidate would be too time-consuming and

expensive.

"I think some of them were looking at this as `How will this affect my

re-election, rather than what's best for the town,'" she said.

Some members also felt the at-large seats might create a situation where the

three at-large seats were all from the same district, giving that district six

seats. However, Mrs Pilchard said the council never votes by district, and,

right now, eight members of the council all live in the same area of town

anyway. She also discovered that the council, which has the final say on all

money matters, is the only finance board in the state not to elect its members

at-large.

The Charter Revision Commission also stuck to its guns in regard to the budget

timeline, standing by its decision to push the annual budget referendum date

back to the third Tuesday in April from its original second Tuesday in April

date. It also stood by its decision to reduce the number of days the council

has to deliberate the budget and hand it over to the town clerk after the

March public hearing from 7 to 10.

The commissioners said they were surprised that the council had asked them to

keep things as they were since it was the council who had asked the charter

panel to "streamline" the budget process in the first place.