HomeMy WebLinkAboutTGSCminutes20060227Town Government Study Committee
Draft Minutes, February 27, 2006
Land Bank Office
Call to Order. Chairman Reinhard called the fifteenth meeting of the Town Government Study
Committee to order at 4:08 pm. Present were members Reinhard, Lohmann, Sevrens, and Willauer.
Minutes. The minutes of February 13 were approved as submitted.
Future Meetings. The next meeting will be March 13, at 2:30 pm, as there is a "Meet the Articles" forum
at 4:30 that day. The following meetings will be on March 27, April 10 and April 24. Town Administrator
Gibson has been invited and will likely attend the April 24th meeting.
Presentation of the Preliminary Report. Reinhard will present the TGSC's official Preliminary report to
the Board of Selectmen/County Commissioners at their meeting on March 15. A copy of the report is due
by March 9. Members of the Committee are urged to attend on the 15th, although several will be away.
There will be TV coverage. The report will be in two parts, a full, detailed report, and a one or two page
summary of the key points. Willauer suggested view graphs, showing the summary "bullet points" as well
as the mission statement and membership list. Lohmann suggested a handout for the public and media
with the summary information as well. Reinhard noted that he will include contact and website
information. While the full report should be inclusive and educational, the summary should be succinct,
with the aim of getting attention and generating feedback.
Draft of Preliminary Report. Sevrens suggested the report begin with the observation that our form of
Town Government is basically a good one, that only some "tweaking," may be necessary. Reinhard's
outline envisions four sections; the first covering the establishment and composition of the committee; the
second, a record of what the committee has done so far and plans to do, with opportunities for public
input; the third containing an enumeration of issues and questions that have been raised so far, together
with comments and observations; and the fourth to be a separable, brief summary of the key elements
raised. It is contemplated that the third section will form the basis for further exploration, and the final
report and recommendations.
There was discussion whether the report will present "findings" and conclusions, or simply
questions and issues. While the TGSC has not made any decisions or formal votes, some "preliminary
findings," comments and rationales might be included as background and potential direction in the
expanded third section.
Referring to Reinhard's draft, the committee reviewed and commented on its form and content.
Section 1: Committee members felt it should include the charge of the Town Meeting, the Mission
Statement and the membership; the general background information, while educational, could be more
concise. Section 2 should summarize the committee's activities: the meetings and interviews held, contacts
and research conducted so far. It should make reference to the minutes, the website, the timeline, and how
to contact the committee. Section 3 would be the key section, including the issues and questions raised so
far in the committee's review, together with details, background information, rationales and commentary.
While the committee's review has followed the order of the sections of the Charter, the report would be
reformatted to organize the issues by topic [such as "Town Meeting," "Board of Selectmen," "Town
Administrator/Manager," "Boards and Commissions," "Elections"] and phrase them as direct questions.
Section 4 would be a brief summary of the report, listing as "bullets," the key issues raised in Section 3,
using the same topic headings.
Reinhard will revise and expand the draft according to the discussion, and will e-mail the new
version to committee members for their response. The final preliminary report must be submitted to the
BOS by March 9.
Adjournment At 5:35 pm. Respectfully submitted, Pamela Lohmann