Minutes

Town Council · from the Town's website · 2 pages · 189 KB
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Subcommittee on Appointments, Commissions, Committees Minutes 12/1/22 
Attendance: Councilors Ruggiero, Belcher, Flockhart; Board of Health Chair Bill
Schmidt, P5; FinCom Chair Karin Chavis, P2 
 Call to order 
 Councilor Ruggiero opens the meeting, recaps the last meeting and outlines
potential steps forward, opens to public comment 
 Chair Schmidt 
o The legality of this needs to be brought up with legal 
o Recaps an email sent to the subcommittee 
 Committees should choose their own chairs 
 Agendas and posting of meeting responsibilities should be spelled
out a little more clearly 
 Annual Town report is usually due on the fiscal year calendar, not
the annual year calendar – recommends doing the annual report on
this schedule 
 “All accompanying documents” language related to meetings
being posted is a little unwieldy 
o There should be a delineation between of what is required and what is
suggested should exist 
 Chair Chavis 
o Not every committee needs to give an annual report, only the policy
making committees need to do that 
 Councilor Belcher 
o These are all great points and there may also need to exist a secondary set
of resources for committees that can be worked into this or live separately 
o Recaps substantive changes included in the current draft 
 Councilor Flockhart recommends semantic changes to the tone of the letter 
 Councilor Belcher 
o Reviews the receipt requested in the letter 
o Reviews non-substantive changes to the table of contents 
 Councilor Flockhart recommends grammatical changes to the 4 th page 
 Councilor Belcher reviews the chair election process changed on this page as well 
 Councilor Belcher reviews changes to the resignation section 
 Councilor Belcher reviews the committee officers section 
o Schmidt points out that some committees must elect chairs at the start of
the calendar year 
o Councilor Ruggiero recommends language to cover this 
 Electing vice-chairs 
o Councilor Ruggiero recommends language to require a Vice Chair to be
elected for policy making committees in order to keep government
operations continuing 
o Anecdotes shared by Schmidt and Chavis to support said language 
 Discussion regarding who can call a meeting under the Chair section

o Perhaps a meeting called without a Chair can be covered in a different
section 
 Councilor Belcher recaps non-substantive changes to the Conduct and Policies
Section 
 Councilor Belcher recaps changes to the Budget and Fundraising section to
include language regarding that a fund must be established prior to accepting
funds 
 Councilor Belcher recaps changes to sexual harassment policy section and
recommends that the Town Manager reviews this and provides any feedback 
 Use of Town Equipment and Facilities 
o Schmidt recommends rewording the last sentence to read “town resources
should only be used for committee work.” 
 Annual Report section 
o Schmidt – recommends the committees report by July 
o Chavis recommends that the committee takes a closer look to see who is
required to submit 
o Schmidt recommends that a report is required at least annually but then it
is at the discretion of the Council to appear at a meeting 
o Discussion of when and how committees need to appear in front of the
council and communicate to the Council 
o Councilor Belcher to connect with the Town Clerk to get a better
understanding in this area before making a recommendation 
 Remote meeting section 
o Councilor Flockhart – need to be clear about violating state law 
o Schmidt – believes that there is a fuller participation while allowing zoom
options 
 Guidelines for Conducting Meetings Section 
o Councilor Flockhart recommends additional clarifying language 
 Include “business hours” 
o Schmidt recaps his recommendation from the beginning of the meeting 
 Posting meetings 
o Chavis – does Friday count even though Town Hall is closed? 
 Belcher – yes, has dealt with this during her time on the Airport
Hazards Committee 
 Councilor Flockhart makes non-substantive edit to the Executive Session section 
 Councilor Flockhart makes non-substantive edit to the Public Hearings section 
 Councilor Belcher – the appendices are not really for the Council to comment on
but more so for the Town Manager. 
 Motion from Belcher to send the revised draft as discussed tonight to the Town
Manager and the Town Clerk for administrative review with a request for
feedback to the subcommittee by January 17 th 
o Seconded by Councilor Flockhart 
o Motion passes unanimously 
 Motion to adjourn from Councilor Belcher, seconded by Councilor Flockhart,
motion passes unanimously