HomeMy WebLinkAbout_07222020-8775Town Government Study Committee
Minutes of the meeting of July 22, 2020. The meeting took place via Zoom. Members of the
committee present were: John Brescher, Curtis Barnes, Rick Atherton, Linda Williams,
Campbell Sutton, and Tucker Holland.
1) Chair John Brescher called the meeting to order at 10:04 am with a quorum.
2) Agenda: Tucker Holland moved approval of the agenda, seconded by Linda Williams.
All voted in favor by voice vote.
3) Public Comment: None. Campbell Sutton suggested that John check with Town
Administration to ensure the public knows how to comment and access our meetings.
4) Minutes: Rick Atherton made a motion to continue the minutes of July 8, 2020 to next
meeting so there was time to make some edits. The motion was seconded by Tucker
Holland. All voted in favor by voice vote, except Curtis Barnes who was off-line at the
time.
5) Discussion of Select Board memo:
Chairman Brescher opened the discussion to the other Committee members to see if
they had comments on the edits that he made. Curtis Barnes asked for additional time
to review the document and Campbell Sutton suggested that we add information relative
to the various types of Town Meeting available in Massachusetts.
Rick Atherton suggested that we review the memo as a living document in a way that we
the committee can continue to work on the document.
Linda Williams asked the Committee to review Section 5 of the memo relative to the
election v. appointment of officials. Rick Atherton agreed, but added that he suggests
we opine that this is a topic the Committee would like to further investigate and requires
further study.
The next topic on the memo was the review of the Historic District Commission charter.
Campbell added that our initial notes were to table this item because it was going to be a
more in-depth review and re-write of the charter. Tucker suggested wordsmithing this as
something to the effect of, “We’re not empowered/within our scope to review this – any
revisions should be further developed by other entities.”
The next topic the Committee addressed was the role of the Town Government Study
Committee within the charter. Rick Atherton suggested we continue any discussion of
this topic to our next meeting so the Committee has ample time to review.
The Committee revisited their discussions re: a Licensing Board. The Committee
agreed that the current draft in the memo was satisfactory. The text of the
recommendation was:
“The Committee heard from members of the public and the Select Board regarding the licensing duties of the Select Board. It seemed prudent to the Committee that if the Select Board deems it appropriate to create its own Licensing Committee, this could be done administratively and would not need any type of charter amendment. This type of Commission would be a step in lessening the amount of time the Select Board spends on certain issues.”
The Committee then discussed the establishment of a Parking Commission. Much like
the discussion re: the license board, the Committee was satisfied that a similar
recommendation could be made. There was discussion asking for a specific Town
Meeting Article reference to use for the recommendation.
The next item the Committee discussed was the establishment of a sewer commission.
Rick Atherton suggested we wait on opining until we know more information from the
Town and what mechanisms would be in place relative to the roles and responsibilities
of this particular commission.
The next item in the memorandum was the integration of the Wannacomet Water
company and the Airport operations within the Town. Linda Williams suggested that we
stay away from opining for now, but Campbell suggested – and the committee agreed –
that we should note that there is always a need for transparency and accountability. The
Committee asked to see a copy of the draft warrant article from 2020 Annual Town
Meeting involving these matters.
The final item the Committee looked at was the Parks and Recreation Commission. The
Committee tasked Linda Williams and Campbell Sutton to draft something for the
Committee to review and noted that we are still awaiting Town Counsel’s opinion.
6) Discussion of Future Responsibilities of Committee and topics investigated
The Committee recommended revisiting more of the discussion points in the memo in
order to bring this to the Select Board at a future meeting.
7) Other Business: None.
8) Date and Time of the Next Meeting:
The next Zoom meeting will be held on August 12, 2020 at 10:00 am.
9) Adjournment:
A motion was made by Rick and duly seconded by Curtis to adjourn at 11:05 am.
Respectfully Submitted,
John B. Brescher, Chair