CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 2, 2003

The Wethersfield Charter Revision Commission held a meeting on September 2, 2003 in the Town Manager's Conference Room at the Town Hall. The Meeting began at 7:20 p.m.

Chairperson Munroe introduced Chantel Teti as recording secretary.

Agenda Item #1: Roll call

The following individuals were present:

Also present was Chantel Teti, Recording Secretary

Agenda Item #2: Adoption of Minutes

Vice Chair Healy motioned to approve the July 29, 2003 minutes as submitted. Geraldine Roberts seconded the motion. It was passed unanimously.

Vice Chair Healy motioned to approve the August 5, 2003 minutes as submitted. Although no votes were held at that meeting, a record of the meeting should be approved and recorded. David Herold seconded the motion. It was passed unanimously.

Vice Chair Healy motioned to include Bonnie Therrien's August 5, 2003 memorandum to Chairperson Geraldine Munroe and Members of the Charter Revision Commission regarding Comments on the Present Town Charter as part of the minutes. The motion was withdrawn due to lack of prior review of the memorandum until the next meeting.

Agenda Item #3: General Comments from the Public

No comments from the public were heard.

Agenda Item #4: Discussion with Department Heads

Rob Buden, Director of Finance

A discussion of Rob's memorandum dated 9/2/03 to Bonnie Therrien ensued. Considerable dialog of Rob's first point, regarding Section 502 of the Charter, took place. Concerns were raised regarding the ability of Town Treasurer to sign checks without necessarily knowing what they are signing. Rob discussed how this situation was handled by other towns and related his experiences as Public Auditor. The Committee discussed how this function could be better handled to provide more accountability for the signor, as it relates to what expenses were being signed for, and if they were, in fact, reasonable expenditures.

Rob expressed his concern about the Town Charter dictating the categories that go into a budget document (Section 703). He feels the budget categories should be dictated by the accounting laws set by the Governmental Accounting Standards, not the Charter.

There was a brief discussion regarding the term "signpost" (Section 705). It was agreed that the wording would be looked at in the future with regard to using all possible means to give notice of hearings.

Rob asked to strike his comments in the memorandum regarding Section 709 and wanted to replace it with the handwritten copy attached to his memorandum. He felt that transfer of appropriations should be an ordinance instead of part of the charter. The new language would place the administrative responsibility on the Department Head to work with the Director of Finance to transfer funds within the set budgets. The Director of Finance would then need Town Manager's approval and all requests, approved or denied, would be reported to the Council at the first meeting of each month.

Rob proposed to increase dollar amount of sealed bids to $20,000 (Section 713 and 714). It was agreed to revisit at a later date.

Rob suggested that the Director of Finance should not sign checks due to improper accounting standards. He felt there should be two signatures on all checks over $20,000. Rob suggested Town Treasurer and Town Manager should sign (Section 715).

The question was raised as to who holds the position of Town Accountant. Apparently the Town Accountant retired and the position was eliminated.

Dr. Nancy Stilwell, Director of Social and Youth Services

Dr. Stilwell wanted the Charter to reflect the wording Department of Social and Youth Services, indicating the merger of the two departments (Section 606).

Laurel Goodgion, Library Director

Charter requires the advertising of open positions for three days in succession (Section 803). Laurel expressed her concern regarding the relevance of this policy and related expense associated with advertising in the Courant. Alternate means of advertising regarding local papers and the Internet were discussed.

Laurel spoke in favor of retention of Charter Section 506. This section establishes the Library Board. She emphasized the importance of Library Boards. Vice Chair Healy expressed his concern with the appropriateness of the level of detail in Charter Section 803.

Paul Hutcheon, Director of Health

Charter Section 605 does not reflect, under the Department of Health, the fact that the town is now a member of the Central Connecticut Health District. This is a change in the way the town provides local public health services. Previously, the Town of Wethersfield had its own Town Health Department, and of 1996 chose to join up with other towns and become part of the Health District.

The phrasing should reflect that the town has options to provide these services, one of them being the option of joining a Health District.

Paul agreed to write up his suggested phrasing for the Charter.

Mike Turner, Director of Public Works

The previously separate departments of Physical Services, Engineering and Building Official Office are being combined under one umbrella called the Department of Public Works. Council is investigating consolidating Building Maintenance services under this umbrella as well. Some of these consolidations may conflict with the terminology contained in the Charter.

The zoning regulations are in the process of being rewritten. It is Mike Turner's opinion that there are currently a cumbersome number of members (9 member board). A recommendation was put forth to reduce the number of board members to a more manageable number for quorum purposes. A reduction to 7 was suggested with input sought from Planning and Zoning.

Vice Chair Healy was interested to see if we could determine, in the past, when quorum was not met due to lack of attendance.

Kathy Bagley, Director of Recreation & Parks

Kathy indicated in her memo to the Town Manager that the Cove Park Advisory Committee is no longer in existence. Leigh Standish recommended that it remain part of the code and be reactivated.

Agenda Item #5: Charter Revision Commission E-Mails - Web Site

Commission Member e-mail accounts were verified. Chairperson Munroe reminded attendees that these accounts were public knowledge and subject to Freedom Of Information regulations.

Agenda Item #6: Miscellaneous

Reminder of Public Hearing on 9/16 at the Community Room at the Police Station.

Commission members discussed having the Town Attorney, Duncan Forsyth, attend future meetings, at least monthly, to assist the Committee as needed.

Rich LeBorious suggested inviting the Boards and Commissions to the Public Hearing.

The proposed timetable for future meetings was discussed. All committee members agreed upon the following dates. The recording secretary will work with the Town Manager's secretary to establish meeting places. All dates and locations will be republished under separate cover. All meetings are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.

Agenda Item #7: Adjournment

David Herold motioned to adjourn the meeting at 9:10 p.m. Vice Chair Healy seconded. The vote was unanimous.

Respectfully submitted,

Dorcas McHugh
Secretary

Approved as amended September 16, 2003