Minutes for Town Meeting Rules Committee
November16, 2005
In attendance: Peter
Burns, Bill Fonseca, Tom Florence, Donna Utter, and Catherine Durkin, Jim
Sheils
Meeting commenced at 7:03pm with Jim Sheils as the
chair. Welcome back Jim. The minutes from 11/02/05 were approved and
seconded by Peter Burns.
The participants reviewed and discussed issues form the
11/02/05 meeting as well as the following:
- Move
the Town Meeting to the 3rd Monday in May. It will give newly elected officers
time to settle in before the meeting.
Also, the House, Ways and Means Committee will have more updated
numbers for budget purposes.
- Discussed
time constraint issues, i.e., when to adjourn a meeting for a second day
or simply keep going.
- Discussed
having one formal set of Town Meeting rules and which periodical to be
used, Roberts vs. Town Meeting Time.
- The
committee reviewed the timing of when articles can be submitted as well as
having the Town Meeting recorded live or taped.
- Define
a location of where each public official and their Board members should
sit at the meeting.
- Place
the precinct locations on the website so people will know where they vote
prior to arriving at the Town Meeting.
- The
committee reviewed the possibility of discussing the articles one week
before the meeting on ELCAT or another type of forum to ensure everyone
understands the subject matter for each article.
- Bill
Fonseca, Jim Sheils and Tom Florence were to meet with the Selectmen to
update them on the status of where the committee stands and their input of
recommending new by-law changes.
- In
order to recommend and suggest by-law changes, timing will be
critical. We must start shortly to
get all recommended changes in the warrant article.
- Discussed
placing all by-laws on the website as other towns currently do, especially
general bylaws vs. zoning bylaws.
- Jim
Sheils will bring the Town Meeting books and laws to the next meeting.
The next meeting was set for Wednesday, November 30, 2005.
There was a motion to adjourn at 8:12pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas P. Florence
Town Clerk, Treasurer, Collector