HomeMy WebLinkAbout_01282019-6999Town Government Study Committee
Minutes of the meeting of January 28, 2019. The meeting took place in the Public Safety Facility
Training Room, 4 Fairgrounds Road, Nantucket, MA 02554. Members of the committee present
were: Curtis Barnes, John Brescher, Kristie Ferrantella and Rick Atherton.
Note: Committee realized at 1:10pm that audio recording was not on and turned it on.
1) Chair John Brescher called the meeting to order at 1:04 with a quorum.
2) Agenda: Curtis Barnes moved approval of the agenda, seconded by Kristie Ferrantella.
All voted in favor
3) Public Comment: None.
4) Other Business: Curtis Barnes brought up that the Dreamland was hosting an event in
collaboration with the Select Board. The Dreamland advertised it as discussing the
future of Nantucket but used promotion material suggesting the discussion of a mayoral
form of government. The TGSC feels we should’ve been invited to attend this event as it
relates to our committee. The event will be this Thursday at the Dreamland. John spoke
with Town Admin and Linda Williams about this event. Town Admin was just as
surprised by this meeting. Linda learned that the Dreamland were the planners. To drum
up participation, they came up with the topics to discuss the mayoral form of government
and so on. But it sounds like the Dreamland determined topics, not the Select Board.
Rick brought up that during the summer, the Nantucket Community Association posts a
meeting with the Select Board and that this seems like a similar event. Curtis would like
John to reach out to Jason to be on the agenda for Thursday’s event. We can give an
update as to what we are doing before it goes to public comment. John will post a
meeting for us in case members of the TGSC would like to attend. Curtis will bring
documents highlighting the four types of government: mayor, town council, open town
meeting, representative town meeting.
5) Review of position papers. John discussed Audit committee and organization structure.
Rick sent a review of our audit committee and charter. Reviewed Wellesley,
Longmeadow, and Mashpee.
Our audit committee: We have the chairman of the SB, chairman of finance committee,
and one other SB member. Rick suggests opening up the membership. Expand by 2
people and have these both publicly appointed. This should not be a member of other
town committees. John - Can we have summer residents apply for this? Rick would like
to see professional experience but does not need to be accountants. Rick has no
objection to summer residents applying. As long as they can attend the meetings, they
should not be excluded.
Audit committee is also charged with appointing the outside auditor. Rick questioned if
the committee should do the appointment or just the recommendation of who to appoint
Are we in a position to recommend a change to the Charter or do we recommend setting
up a committee to review the audit committee.
The TGSC would like to add more independence to audit committee process. The
committee likes the idea of recommending this.
Organization Chart: Nantucket chart was provided from Town Admin. Chart does not
reflect reporting relationships and also does not show that public safety reports to town
manager. Rick found Barnstable’s town org chart. They have a different form of
government but still have a town manager that reports to town council. Have “regulatory”
services that report to Town Manager. Our structure tends to take away the coordination
and planning between land use and board of selectmen. There is a difference between
long term planning and immediate budgetary planning. Rick likes the way Barnstable
separates out theirs.
Rick asked if Town Admin could provide us with other town’s orgs charts. We feel it
would be a helpful requirement that the town must give an org chart to SB once per year.
NP&EDC evaluates Planning Director (Andrew Vorce) and his contract is under them.
But there’s no clear link to him reporting to town manager.
How does HDC or Building Dept connect to Town Manager or only through PLUS.
No other town manager has staff that supports conservation commission or HDC. Staff
that supports our regulatory bodies report up to Town Manager and not to the
commissions.
6) Meeting timeline for winter/spring. With Linda and Tucker missing, the committee did not
want to do long term planning. We do feel we should meet twice per month unitl Town
Meeting.
7) Trip to Falmouth. Our last trip was cancelled due to weather. Falmouth is available
whenever we are ready. Best time is between 10 and 11am. Aiming for Feb 4 or 5th
8) Next meeting is February 11, 2019 at 1pm
9) Other Business. Curtis asked if anyone has applied for the open position on our
committee. John reported that Tom Dixon is interested in applying.
10) Rick made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Curtis, all voted in favor. The
meeting was adjourned at 2:44pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kristie Ferrantella, Recording Secretary