MINUTES OF COLCHESTER GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE
COLCHESTER POLICE STATION CONFERENCE ROOM
835 BLAKELY ROAD
COLCHESTER, VT
COLCHESTER, VT
December 5 , 2013 @ 7:00 p.m.
Present: Jacob
Hemmerick, Pam Loranger, Bud Meyers, Mickey Palmer, Curt Taylor, David Usher
Absent: Pamela Laurence-Dimson
Note : for the purposes of clarity, Pam Loranger will be identified as Pam
and Pamela Laurence-Dimson will be identified as Pamela
1. Jacob Hemmerick called the meeting to
order at 7PM
2. APPROVAL OF
THE AGENDA
The
Agenda was approved without discussion
3. Administrative Business Updates
-Conference Calling Instructions ....reviewed
-Communication: FPF, Spotlight, etc ...Jacob to get access
to FPF townwide
-
Meeting Room on 12/19 Pam to
confirm
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
David
Usher MOVED to approve the minutes of November 21, 2013.
Bud Meyers SECONDED the
MOTION.
Correction made to the minutes to include Curt Taylor as attending.
MOTION approved UNANIMOUSLY with correction.
In accordance with new procedure the LCATV tapes will serve as record of
the meeting unless a formal action is taken.
5. PUBLIC COMMENT
None
6. BUSINESS ITEMS
a. The Final Review of the Selectboard update for 12/10 meeting.
ACTION: David
Usher MOVED to approve the Selectboard update as edited. Mickey Palmer SECONDED.
MOTION approved UNANIMOUSLY.
The full
text may be found on our blog: http://colchestergovernance.blogspot.com/
b. Fire District
Consolidation Recommendation
The
following Recommendation was reviewed by the Committee. Curt submitted an alternate
recommendation. However, the
committee agreed to incorporate language from Curt's submission into the one on
the table.
ACTION: Pam MOVED to accept the recommendations
for purposes of discussion. David
Usher SECONDED.
Fire District Recommendations (Original)
Water services are an integral
part of Town planning. Industry and most citizens understand that providing
adequate clean water is a legitimate municipal service. The whole Town benefits
from an efficient, well maintained water supply infrastructure. Current water
customers can depend on a safe, adequate, cost effective supply. Planning and
managing the Town’s growth can be accomplished with common citizen
participation forums, coordination of Town departments and resources, and
established checks and balances. If the Town of Colchester were starting from
scratch the Governance Committee would recommend a single Fire District created
by the Selectboard and managed by the Town’s Department of Public Works.
But Colchester is not starting
from scratch. We must deal with Colchester’s water issues as they are today:
three separate Fire Districts within the Town limits, one outside the Town
limits (Essex) and two separate water sources (Champlain Water District and
Burlington).
The Committee has identified
five significant problems with the current water supply system.
1)
Customer/Developer Confusion: Most customers do not understand how their water
is provided. Potential developers find themselves dealing with several entities
(State, Town and Fire District).
2)
Crisis resolution: When a crisis occurs (water main break) customers and
citizens do not know who to call. Several entities (Town, Fire District and
water provider) may be involved.
3)
Roadblocks to Town Planning: Coordination of infrastructure development is
inhibited by the number of players involved.
4)
Sewer allotment billing inefficiencies: Collecting fees for payment of the
Town’s sewer allotments involves contacting and processing information from
several water districts.
5) Variation in Engineering
By-Laws: Each Fire District has its own set of by-laws with specifications to
be following in the installation and maintenance of infrastructure and what is
expected of water customers. These can, and do, vary. In addition, the Town has
building specifications that can come in conflict with the Fire Districts’
by-laws.
Potential Governance Committee
Recommendations to the Selectboard
1) Consolidation of the three
Fire Districts: Easily stated, but hard to implement. Fire Districts are
distinct municipalities responsible to their customers and voters. The Town
cannot force consolidation of Fire Districts. It can, however, encourage it and
provide the forum and council needed to bring it about. This recommendation
leaves the implementation up to the Selectboard. The Governance Committee
states only that in terms of effective and efficient governance it would be
best to have a single consolidated Fire District under the auspices of the
Director of Public Works. The Selectboard should proceed with plans to make
that happen.
2) Improve Communication and
leave the Fire Districts alone: Several of the five problems mentioned above
are the result of poor communication. Citizen and developer knowledge and
crisis management could be improved by a concerted effort to make the current
structure more transparent and by developing a set of agreed upon and written standard
operating procedures.
3) Cooperation, Coordination
and Consolidation: Much of the current controversy is the result of past
disputes. A flurry of angry phone calls by citizens to someone who can only
pass on that anger to another entity results in enmity that survives long after
the crisis has been resolved. The Selectboard should help establish a means for
cooperation by contributing funds to the maintenance of an independent
employment position with the responsibility of coordinating Fire District
issues. The position would also be financed by funds from each Fire District,
CWD, and the Town (and perhaps the Town of Essex and the City of Burlington).
The person in such a position would attend all Prudential Board meetings, and
inform the Selectboard, and Director of Public Works. Such a position would
also be the primary contact for all citizen inquiries and would consult with
developers regarding permits. In addition each Fire District will send a Board
member to meet periodically and jointly with this person to discuss and resolve
contentious issues. The goal of such meetings will be to develop procedures for
crisis management and reconcile differences between the by-laws of all
Colchester Fire Districts. The long term goal of this recommendation is either
the consolidation of the Fire Districts or the development of a working
management procedure under the current structure.
Curt Taylor's submission December 5, 2013
the Governance Committee
recommends that the Town of Colchester support and pursue consolidation of the
Fire Districts' water provision function under the auspices of the Town's
Department of Public Works.
This recommendation addresses
serious problems inherent in the current, fragmented governance structure
whereby fire jurisdictions have authority over water-related infrastructure and
provisions within defined geographic areas in Colchester: Fire District 1, Fire
District 2, Fire District 3, the Champlain Water District and the Town of
Essex.
This structure inhibits
efficient planning of Colchester's future. Decisions regarding the growth and development of the town should
be vested in the Town's Selectboard subject to legally mandated public review processes. Because water infrastructure is an important
factor influencing both Colchester's natural environment and population growth,
decision regarding the maintenance and development of water infrastructure
should rest with he
Selectboard. The Fire Districts, each
with their own elected bodies, are not necessarily responsive to the needs of
the whole Town and not coordinate with policy decisions made by the population
in general as manifest in the decisions of the Selectboard and its public
review process. In addition, the
implementation of Town policy is made inefficient by the number of players
involved and the degree to which they wish to cooperate.
The Governance Committee is
fully aware of the valuable service each Fire District has provided the Town
and values the civic commitment of their employees and Prudential Committees. The Committee is also aware of the
disruption this recommendation with cause in the lives on many of Colchester's
most dedicated citizens. But the
Town of Colchester has outgrown the current water management infrastructure and
needs a more responsive and efficient approach. This recommendation hope to
initiate the development of that approach.
Minutes: Discussion followed. David Usher MOVED to table the
motion. Bud Meyers SECONDED. MOTION approved unanimously.
c. Charter Text Concerning the Snowplowing
of Some Private Roads
At our last meeting, we discussed
the appropriateness of the plowing language in the Charter.
The current language basically
states that the Board shall have the power “To establish a policy whereby the
Board of Selectmen may determine it to be in the public interest to plow those
private roads serving two (2) or more year-round residences, which had previous
to January 1, 1997 have the town providing winter road maintenance.”
We are not aware if a prior Board
ever adopted a formal policy.
There was informal agreement by
the Governance Committee that the language above should be removed from the
Charter and a policy should be developed by the Board.
PLD suggested three alternatives
to address the equity issue presented by this language. The Town could address the equity issue
by either:
1) Plowing all private roads;
2) Plowing only those roads
meeting specifications; or
3) Plowing no private roads.
Discussions tabled until December
19, 2013
7. Review Upcoming Meetings & Agenda
Items
12/19: Selectboard Update follow-up, Form of Government
01/02/2014
01/16/2014
02/06/2014
02/20/2014
Time not permitting for
discussion.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Having no further business to conduct, Pam MOVED to adjourn. David SECONDED
the MOTION UNANIMOUS consent. Meeting adjourned at 9:04PM.
Respectfully submitted,
______________________________________
Pam Loranger Secretary
December 19, 2013
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