HomeMy WebLinkAboutTGSCminutes20060724Town Government Study Committee
Minutes, July 24, 2006
Land Bank Office
Call to Order. Chairman Reinhard called the thirtyfirst meeting of the Town
Government Study Committee to order at 4:05 pm. Present were members Reinhard,
Gardner, Lohmann, Miller, Sevrens, Topham, and Willauer, and guests Barnes and
Sherman.
Minutes. The minutes of July 18 were approved as submitted.
Discussion of Meeting with Town Counsel DeRensis. Members felt that DeRensis had
provided much background information and raised some interesting ideas. Willauer
mentioned particularly the potential powers of the County Commissioners to pass bylaws.
Also the concept of consolidating powers of elected officials, making more bodies [such
as HDC and Planning Board] appointed. Reinhard noted that making Nantucket's HDC,
which is a statutory agency, into an appointed body would require legislative action,
although other HDCs in the state are appointed. Another idea was a separate town
accountant to act as a check on the power of the Town Manager [TM]. There was
discussion of the balance between strengthening the position of the TM and providing
checks on that power. This is a topic to pursue with our consultant.
A professional TM may not have adequate knowledge of the local conditions. Local
bodies may resist changes proposed by outside professionals. Also, in hiring
professionals, while it is easy to review education and experience, it is difficult to assess
the common sense and people skills in advance. There were suggestions for a
probationary period, annual performance reviews, and contracts that are not automatically
renewed. The TM reviews department heads; the Board of Selectmen [BOS] reviews the
TM's performance. Reinhard asked Willauer to report on the current policy for reviews.
Regarding the conflict of town employees serving on elected boards, DeRensis noted that
as of 2010, Nantucket's population would likely exceed 10,000 and automatically trigger
stricter ethics requirements and conflict rules. While the TGSC had felt that BOS
members should not be allowed to be town employees, DeRensis' emphasis seemed to be
on facilitating town employees serving in town government, as "Special Municipal
Employees [SME]." He stressed the potential legal difficulties of conflicts, and Gardner
noted they can arise without people being aware of them. Another topic to discuss with
our consultant.
The question arose whether the 10,000 population figure also triggers a requirement for a
different form of government.
With regard to appointments, while DeRensis felt it appropriate for the TM to appoint
professional staff, but he suggested the BOS would be a better body to appoint volunteer
committees, since they would know community members better. TGSC members felt the
division of BOS appointing regulatory bodies and TM appointing advisory bodies still
was reasonable. Gardner felt further discussion was needed with regard to HDC and
Planning Board.
Regarding local counsel, the TGSC committee felt that the resources and expertise of a
large legal firm were necessary, and an additional inhouse counsel at all BOS meetings
might begin to act as a sixth selectman and create conflicts and confusion.
On licensing matters, Miller and Gardner noted that the problem is with enforcement and
followthrough on conditions; a licensing board could perform that function, as it does in
other towns. Willauer commented that the Town Administrator is conducting training for
employees on code enforcement.
Sevrens asked about DeRensis' views on Troy's suggestion of consolidating town and
county governments; Reinhard noted he felt it important for Nantucket to retain its
separate identity as a county, with its advantages in the charter of dealing with real estate
and ability to pass bylaws.
Reinhard noted that we did not get through all the questions on the list for DeRensis; we
will want to meet with him again to review those and other questions raised, such as his
indication that additional approval requirements for the Master Plan might be added to
the charter. We will continue to work on the process of refining the issues and in our
meeting with Mr. Groux, we will focus on the consensus issues and honing our
recommendations and how to proceed. Reinhard would like to have a specific list of
recommendations by the end of the summer, the end of August or September, and have
the consultants working on implementation.
Future Meetings. Reinhard said Mr. Groux would like to meet with us at our next
meeting, Monday July 31, at 4:00 pm. He has been following the minutes and has the list
of questions. Committee members should review the list of draft recommendations
[about 2/3 done], and come with specific questions for the consultant on Monday.
The scheduled August 7 meeting conflicts with a Civic League meeting, and it was
decided to move it to Thursday, August 10 at 4:00 pm.
Other Business. Willauer distributed a draft proposal regarding certain appointments,
especially the two newlycreated committees for Harbor Plan Review and Sewer
Advisory. There was discussion about how to handle appointments of representatives
from designated organizations. It was the consensus that the organizations should
nominate candidates, but the BOS has ultimate approval authority. Sherman suggested
that if the BOS rejects an organization's nominee, the organization should be invited to
submit another nominee. The proposal also provided for the TM to review appointments
of town employees.
Topham made a couple of corrections on the last page of the minutes of July 3. [See
revised page].
Adjournment. At 5:45 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Pamela Lohmann