Governance Topic Prioritization by Selectboard

Town Manager’s Office Colchester, VT

Memo

To:                       Colchester Selectboard and Governance Committee

From:                   Dawn H. Francis, Town Manager

Date:                 January 15, 2014

Re:                     Selectboard’s Direction on Governance Committee Priorities

As a follow up to the Governance Committee report presented at the Selectboard’s December 10^th meeting, the Selectboard met on January 14, 2014 and offer the following as the prioritized tasks for the Governance Committee to focus on.           

·      Section by section charter review - First priority. Clean up the sections that are in conflict from today’s processes. For example, do we need to elect a grand juror? Do we need to appoint fence viewers? Do we need to have a run-off election in a three way race if one candidate does not have 40% or can the majority rule in a local race? Elections are costly. Must the Town Manager attend all Selectboard meetings in the event of unforeseen circumstances or excused absences? Does the Town Meeting have to be held at 7:30 p.m. or should the time be removed so we have the option of starting at 7 p.m.? Should the penalty amount of 8 % for timely tax payment be reduced? The Department Heads have prepared a number of recommended charter changes that should be considered and advanced by the Committee. Staff has advised limiting the number of charter changes to be considered by the voters at one time as the voters are not in the habit of voting on charter changes so the changes should be introduced in small increments with the uncontroversial changes that are more housekeeping in nature acted upon initially.

·      Local Option Tax – Short Term Priority/November, 2014 or March 2015 vote. This issue needs a lot of public outreach, education and discussion and for it to succeed, it must be tied into a definitive project or use. It is acknowledged that even November, 2014 will be an ambitious time line given the need to hold hearings beginning in mid-August. The Selectboard is interested in the Committee providing the specific charter change language that would be needed to enable a local option tax. The public education, outreach and discussion for the LOT issue will be under the purview of the Administration and Selectboard.

·      Elected or Appointed Town Clerk/Treasurer- Short Term Priority/November, 2014 or March 2015 vote. The Selectboard would appreciate the Governance Committee’s input as to whether this should be an elected or appointed position, whether this issue is viewed as being controversial in nature and suggested charter change language. 

·      Form Of Government – Off the Table. From the discussions we have heard at the Board and Governance Committee level, the status quo of the Board/Manager form of government seems acceptable at this time.

·      Selectboard Representation – Off the Table. From the discussions we have heard at the Board and Governance Committee level, the status quo of a five member Selectboard representing the entire town seems acceptable at this time. The sentiment seems to be let’s not further divide the community than it already is by virtue of its size and geography and therefore, wards or voting districts are not needed.

·      Form of Town Meeting – Off the Table. From the discussions we have heard at the Board and Governance Committee level, the status quo of Australian ballot voting with a Town Meeting the night before seems acceptable at this time.

·      Term Limits – Off the Table. The system seems to work now without term limits as the last Selectboard election proved.

·      School – Town Cooperation – Off the table. The Town and School District are already cooperating on a number of levels including facilities, communications, expertise, police resources, etc. Both Boards, as well as the Town Manager and School Superintendent are committed to working collaboratively.

·      Snowplowing/Private Roads – Longer Term Priority Before we tackle the issue of private roads, a good deal of history including how we got to where we are today, how the community voted in the past as well as a review of costs, legal advice, and the time available for the staff and Selectboard to deliberate this issue must be considered. This is a complex issue that will require the evaluation of costs, significant community outreach and the community dialogue will be robust and voluminous for the Selectboard and staff.

·      Water Governance – Longer Term Priority Some inroads have been made in improving communications between the Water/Fire Districts and additional information has been centralized on the town’s website and in a recent issue of Currently Colchester. The Districts also seem to be communicating more with one another and the town and there is some potential for consolidation of the CCVFD and CFD #3. Perhaps this is something that could be addressed by a commitment of the parties to meet on a more regular basis to troubleshoot some of the inefficiencies that have recently been identified.

Timing of Charter Change Vote – If there were housekeeping charter changes ready to be voted on in November of 2014, there is a 3 month lead time (August 15^th) required due to the public hearing notice requirements for charter amendments required by state statute. Therefore, perhaps the longer term issues could be addressed in 2015/16. There is not enough time between the November election and the March election to prepare another group of changes unless they were all prepared and ready to roll out immediately after the November vote. The benefit of a November vote would be the Legislature could approve the charter changes sooner. However, a March vote would still allow for approval by the Legislature in the same session.