HomeMy WebLinkAboutTGSCminutes20060313
Town Government Study Committee
Official Minutes, March 13, 2006
Land Bank Conference Room
Call to Order. Chairman Reinhard called the sixteenth meeting of the Town
Government Study Committee to order at 2:38 p.m. with members Sevrens, Topham, and
Willauer present for a quorum. The chairman announced that in the absence of Secretary
Lohmann, he would record minutes for today’s meeting. Member Miller joined the
meeting at 2:49.
Minutes. The draft minutes of February 27, 2006 were approved as submitted. There
followed a discussion of the release of our minutes. Member Topham moved and Sevrens
seconded a motion to delay public release of our draft minutes until they had been
officially moved and approved by a vote of the committee. Concern was expressed that
as we delve more deeply into our study of Town and County government our
deliberations may probe more sensitive areas and care should be given to the public
record we create through release of our minutes. There followed an opinion that
transparency was important and that rapid public release of our open discussion in public
session was one aim of our committee and only those who specifically asked, and have an
e-mail address received our minutes prior to their approval at our following meeting.
These are the very people we wish to engage in our work. More discussion of
availability, and posting of minutes to our website followed. It was suggested that
committee members should have a list of who receives minutes before they become
public. The chair recited a partial list and said a complete list will be available at our
next meeting. After more discussion, chairman Reinhard called for a vote on the motion
as amended by member Sevrens that draft minutes of the TGSC will not be released to
the public until five business days following receipt by committee members. The vote
was two in favor, three opposed. The motion failed. Minutes will continue to be made
available, at the convenience of the secretary, and released to whomever requests them, at
the convenience of the secretary, after committee members have had at least two days to
review and respond with any necessary corrections. Official minutes will continue to be
made available electronically on our website, www.ackgovstudy.org at the convenience
of the secretary and our very generous web wizard, Sarah Oktay. [A question raised by
this discussion is, who sees our minutes? Both the Town Clerk and Town Administrator
claim they have no room to store minutes from committees. The only repository of our
public record, our minutes, is the hard drives of the computers of our secretary and then
committee members, and on our website. (Editorial comment)] Further discussion of the
minutes will be held for the secretary’s presence.
Discussion: TGSC Preliminary Report. There followed discussion of the Preliminary
Report presented to the Town Administrator on Wednesday, March 8. Once submitted, it
became a public document. On Thursday, printed copies were delivered to the Town
Clerk and the Atheneum. Electronic copies of the document were widely distributed to
media and our website.
1
The next hour was spent discussing the Preliminary Report, its presentation to the
Board of Selectmen/Town Administrator on Wednesday, March 15, and how best to
utilize the opportunity to present our work to date to the Administrator and Selectmen.
The discussion was wide ranging and stressed that our presentation Wednesday should be
concise, and directly address the major points from the Issues and Questions section of
our report and summary, and should include a timeline for completing our work. We
discussed what slides or view graphs might highlight our presentation. It was decided
that, if used, no more than four or five graphics should be shown to illustrate main points.
Areas to be addressed in our presentation include in priority order: the
Administrator/Manager question, Town Meeting questions, Selectmen issues, generally
following the bullet points of our summary.
Important comments to emphasize are:
“The focus of our committee is to examine local Town and County government on
Nantucket. Our underlying purpose is to find ways to streamline and make more
effective the delivery of services to the community.”
“On Nantucket, registered voters are the ones who possess the greatest power through
their votes on candidates to represent them, and their votes on ballot issues and warrant
articles.” Voters must assume responsibility for the quality of government.
We plan to soon hire a professional consultant to work with us.
The public is encouraged to participate in our work. We are easy to contact.
Read the full report at our website, www.ackgovstudy.org or at the Atheneum.
We have compiled a list of Issues and Questions that will form the basis of our work for
the next year. They include:
Should the position of Town and County Administrator be strengthened? If so, what is
the best way?
Should the role of the Board of Selectmen/County Commissioners be changed? If so,
how?
Should Town Meeting be changed? If so, how can it be made more representative of the
communities’ will?
How can policy, decision-making, and administration be made more responsive and
effective?
What role should Town and County employees play in local government through election
or appointment to public office and boards, committees and commissions?
2
3
How can we make local government more responsive, and effective in solving
community problems?
These bullet points will be incorporated into Wednesday’s presentation with time
left to answer any questions the Selectmen or Administrator may have. Further
discussion of the presentation, and future direction of the committee’s work followed.
Member Sevrens pointed out that we must find out which changes can be made through
warrant article recommendations and which will need charter amendment.
Discussion regarding hiring a consultant. Chairman Reinhard then raised the question
of hiring a consultant. In our report, we state we plan to have chosen a consultant by late
April. The chair will collect information about possible consultants in addition to Tom
Groux so the committee will have a basis for choice. The consensus was that we need to
bring a consultant on board soon if we are to have recommendations and a Final Report
draft ready by November for inclusion on the 2007 warrant. It is important for us to
develop a timeline of tasks to be done. It was suggested that by our next meeting on
March 27, committee members should have a list of what questions and areas we want a
consultant to address.
Other business. Chairman Reinhard distributed copies of “Election Dissection . . .” an
article from Pam Lohmann about alternative election options in multiple candidate races.
Reinhard asked members to read the article for suggestions that might apply to local
elections.
Adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 4:08 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Allen Reinhard, Acting Secretary