June 10th 2015 Minutes - As Approved

MINUTES OF COLCHESTER GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE

COLCHESTER TOWN OFFICES

“The Fish Bowl”
COLCHESTER, VT

June 10^th @ 9:00 a.m.

Present: Curt Taylor, Mickey Palmer, Bud Meyers and David Usher

LCATV was not present. An audio recording was made of the meeting.

1.      Call to Order: Chair David Usher called the meeting to order at 9:03 a.m.

2.      Agenda Changes

a.       Mickey Palmer pointed out an inconsistency regarding fines in the Charter in that fines are said to be no greater than a specific amount and yet there are fines in the ordinances that are greater than that. The charter change to fix this was bundled with another during the November, 2014 Charger Change vote and voted down. Mickey asked that this become an agenda item at a later date. Chair agreed.

b.      Curt asked that approval of previous minutes be on the agenda.

3.      Approval of minutes from July 28^th 2014

MOTION by Bud Meyers

SECONDED by Mickey Palmer

APPROVED by unanimous vote.

4.      Approval of minutes from May 29^th 2015

Bud pointed out that the date is not in the header.

MOTION by Mickey Palmer

SECONDED by Bud Meyers

APPROVED by unanimous vote.

5.      Meeting schedule and Locations

David Usher has scheduled the Kirker room for the next 6 weeks for the Governance Committee from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. Curt will contact LCATV.

After some discussion it was decided that we would continue to use the Governance Committee blog (ColchesterGovernance.blogspot.com) to post agendas and minutes and use the ColchesterCharter@gmail.com Google Drive for documents and supporting information. There has been come confusion as to how material is stored on Google Drive. At the next meeting we will take time to go over the organization of the Drive.

6.      A final version of the changed charter

David Usher had received a final version of the Town Charter from the town manager but several changes had not been made. After reviewing those changes the committee decided to have the Town administration make the changes and return a more accurate version.

7.      Conflict of Interest Policy

David Usher introduced the idea that the Charter should require the Selectboard to develop a Conflict of Interest (COI) Ordinance or Policy. He proposed Charter language to do so. The Town already has a comprehensive COI policy but such a policy or ordinance is not required by the Charter. Bud Meyers expressed an interest in having more citizen involvement in the development or approval of the policy. This might be done by requiring that this policy be an ordinance with associated public hearings. Questions arose as to the enforcement of ordinances vs. policies. There was some concern that the current policy says only that the Selectboard must hear the recommendation of the Ethics Committee. The Selectboard’s decision is final.

After considerable discussion regarding how policies or ordinances are changed the committee decided that the topic would be raised at the next meeting and that committee members should consider the language proposed by David Usher. Mickey Palmer suggested that the Charter might specify what the policy should cover and how it might be changed. The Committee agreed that Chapter 9 of the Charter regarding this issue needs consideration and possible modification.

8.      Appointed Clerk Strategy

The Committee has already made a recommendation to the Selectboard that the Clerk/Treasurer position be appointed rather than elected. That charter change was rejected by a margin of 13 votes. Should the Committee suggest a strategy for resubmitting this issue to the voters? The decision was to leave the issue alone and let the Town administration and Selectboard decide how to handle it.

9.      Storm Water Utility

The Town is considering creating a Storm Water Utility in order to collect fees and manage storm water runoff. State statute enables towns to create such utilities and Bryan Osborne (Colchester’s Director of Public Works) does not think a Charter change is necessary.

The question was then raised as to whether such a Storm Water Utility should be a regional entity. State statute enables Towns to create regional Utilities so this may not be a Charter issue. It is within the charge of the Governance Committee to make recommendations regarding regionalization. David Usher suggested that the first step is to hear from Bryan Osborne. The committee agreed and Bryan Osborne will be contacted. There is also already a Colchester Storm Water Advisory Committee that may be considering the issue.

10.   Future Committee Work

a.       Town Manager Report: The Committee agreed that it would be good to hear suggestions and thoughts from the Dawn Francis. David Usher will schedule her for a future meeting

b.      Plowing of Private Roads: The Committee has recommended that’s the Charter paragraph be removed from the Charter but Mickey Palmer thinks this should be discussed in detail and a concrete recommendation made. David Usher asked Mickey Palmer to write up some of his thoughts on what such a recommendation might be.

c.       Assessor quorum issue: This issue has yet to be addressed.

d.      Board of Civil Authority (BCA): Bud Meyers, who originally raised this issue, felt that after further research it was not really necessary to change the Charter. The relevant information regarding the BCA is in the Vermont League of City and Town’s Selectboard Handbook. The information can also be obtained from the Town Clerk.

e.       Charter Review: This can be done when we have a final version of the current Charter.

11.  Adjournment

MOTION to adjourn by Curt Taylor

SECOND by Mickey Palmer

APPROVED unanimously at 11:00 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Curt Taylor, Secretary

June 12^th 2015