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The November 7th ballot will have an question for Somers Citizens to
vote on it will appear as follows:
"Shall the revisions to the Town Charter as recommended by the Charter
Revision Commission and approved by the Board of Selectmen be approved?"
Final Recommendations from Charter Revision Commission
Click here for the final
report
Resolution Establishing the Charter Revision Committee on April 17, 2006:
The Board of Selectmen resolves to establish a Charter
Revision Commission for the purpose of fixing errors, clarifying verbiage
and making necessary changes to enhance the operation of the Town of Somers.
The Board of Selectmen have created a list of specific
items that should be reviewed, researched and recommendations made by this
Charter Revision commission, they are:
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Voting Districts: Correct the language in section 2.2 regarding
the two voting districts, due to the fact that the two districts no longer
accurately reflect the current House district lines.
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Elected Constables: Eliminate the language in section 3.1
regarding the election of “four Constables”. With the changes in probate, there
is no longer a significant need to have these officials.
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Board of Assessors: Eliminate section 3.4. Historically the Board
of Assessors actually conducted the assessment duties, but as towns have gone to
permanent full time Assessors, they usually eliminate their Board of Assessors.
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Summary Verbiage of Ordinance: With the requirements to publish
the full text of new ordinances both for public hearings and for adoption in
newspaper, the costs to the town are increased. A recommended solution is to
publish a summary verbiage describing the Ordinance and have a reference to
review the entire ordinance at the Town Clerk’s office.
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Clerk of the Board of Selectmen: Eliminate section 4.6 that
requires a Clerk of the Board of Selectmen be appointed. The need for
secretarial duties at Board of Selectmen meetings varies and the person actually
taking minutes actually changes often. While the duties will continue to be
fulfilled, the need for this to be in the Charter does not seem necessary.
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Commencement of Terms: The language in section 5.2a is confusing
and should be clarified. The commencement date of 30 days after the term of the
Board of Selectmen begins is variable as the date of election changes from year
to year; this conflicts with the end date of previous member terms of boards. In
order to correct the situation, the Board has currently been using the date of
December 22nd as the start and end date of all appointive terms. We
suggest that this be codified in the charter to be clear.
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Board of Finance Regulations: clarify or eliminate section 6.8e
that discusses the regulations of the Board of Finance and their applicability
and requirements for referring them to other boards. There are no formal
regulations of the Board of Finance, therefore it could be eliminated or if
found to be necessary, the language should be more specific to what a regulation
is and how they would be established and what effect it would or would not have.
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Date of Annual Town Meeting: Change section 7.1a to set the annual
Town Meeting to some date in the middle of May. Annually we go through a
process of having to have a special town meeting to change the date of the
Annual Town meeting to a later date. We need to just make this permanent and
avoid the costs and time involved with these additional town meetings.
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Advertising of Town Meetings: Update section 7.1c to simplify the
advertising of Town Meetings and limit the cost factors involved with
advertising.
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Budget Referendum: Look to add language to section 7.1 regarding
referendum for budgets and allowing for subsequent referendums (if failed) to be
scheduled by Board of Selectmen without going to Town Meeting. The current
process of Board of Selectmen meeting to set Town Meeting which in turn sets
Budget Referendum results in excessive delays and cost in the process.
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Board of Selectmen Vacancy: Clarify the conflicting language in
the Charter regarding vacancy on the Board of Selectmen. One section (2.1b)
states that an elective board vacancy “shall be filled by a member of the same
political party”, but section 2.5a states that vacancies “be filled in the
manner prescribed by General Statutes”, which has no mention of political party
preference.
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Appropriations Limits: Section 6.7a has its limit on
appropriations refer to CT General Statutes which allows for this limit to
increase dynamically. Section 6.7b has a hard number of $10,000, which each year
becomes a more likely level to attain. A more dynamic mechanism like 6.7a or at
least an increase in this hard number should be considered.
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Elected Professionals: The Treasurer, Town Clerk and Tax Collector
are elected officials. As many small towns have grown, they have moved toward
making these full-time professional positions appointed by the Board of
Selectmen rather than elected. Currently there are no minimum job requirements
necessary to run for election of any of these positions. There is currently the
possibility that someone can be elected to these positions that is not
professionally skilled to fulfill the now complex tasks required. (ie. A person
with no accounting skills can become Town Treasurer, if elected.) To
competently fulfill the job requirements, the state requires professional
certifications that can take several years to complete. Many good professional
candidates for these positions may be hesitant to pursue them due to the
significant job insecurity associated with an elected position which could
result in losing their job every two years, not due to job performance
but possibly just because of the name recognition of an opposing candidate. In
order to attract and retain the most professional personnel for these key
positions, the permanent employment nature of a full-time professional may be
the best solution.
In pursuing these issues and any sub-issues that may result
due to research and review, the Board of Selectmen encourages that the
commission pay close attention to the schedule of required tasks leading up to a
vote to be held during our regular elections in November. The schedule requires
that you have a public hearing in May, conduct your review work and present your
final recommendations to the Board of Selectmen by July 1st. If
necessary the commission should modify their schedule of meetings and/or issues
to ensure that the optimal portion of these changes are ready for presentation
to the Board of Selectmen by the July 1st deadline.
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