Present: D. Arden, E. Petti, C. Bowmar-Perry, R. Halpern, R. Maney, J. Blumengarten, J. Bacigalupi, E. Larkin, and C. Gasior
Finance Committee Members Present: Carl Meredith, Jeff Arnold, Terrie Cook, Jim Morgan, Fred Blythe, and Kathy Lynch.
Audience: Bea Perkins, League of Women Voters; Alan Samry, Mashpee Enterprise and Sean Gonsalves, Cape Cod Times
Dr. Petti, Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 7 p.m.
Public Comment…None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Ruth Maney motioned to accept the minutes of July 11; this was seconded by Juan Bacigalupi; and unanimously carried.
Dr. Petti welcomed the Finance Committee and thanked them, on behalf of the Commission, for coming.
Carl Meredith, Chairman of the FinCom, stated they can do individual personal opinions or, if the Charter Commission prefers, they could come back and give “consensus” on behalf of FinCom after they’ve had an opportunity to review the questions as a group. Following discussions between the groups it was decided to proceed and get some individual feedback. Some of the highlights are broken down by following topics:
Town Government
Carl Meredith likes status quo. It works. It’s answerable to the people. Kathy Lynch agreed. Jim Morgan fairly satisfied with Town. Jeff said he’s perfectly happy.
By-Laws
Kathy Lynch commented that maybe the Charter Commission should be asked to take a look at By-Laws. Jeff Arnold said we do need changes in By-Laws. Jim Morgan noted that many By-Laws seem to have disconnected.
Charter Commission Comments…Ed Larkin commented that Charters normally don’t get involved with By-Laws. Kathy retorted: Then what are you doing? Ed responded that Committee structure is what is in Charter and some important questions are:
Juan Bacigalupi’s comment re By-Laws was that there will be By-Laws, etc. that will be deleted, changed, etc. as a result of the Charter and one of the things that happens is a By-Law Review Committee is formed afterwards.
Open Town Meeting or Representative Town Meeting
Jim Morgan’s very satisfied with open Town Meeting and would not be partial to significant change. Terrie Cook agreed and said she sees no need to change it. Carl also in favor of open Town Meeting.
Charter Comment…Juan mentioned that according to MGL until now Mashpee had to have open Town Meeting. However, since Mashpee now over 12,000 we’re eligible for any of 4 types of government. Nevertheless, he said both he and his wife favor open Town Meeting as well.
Elected vs. Appointed
Fred Blythe feels Selectmen and FinCom should be elected, not appointed. He also noted that “elected or appointed” is not going to stop vacancies.
Carl Meredith feels FinCom should be elected, not appointed, because as elected officials they’re answerable to the people. As appointed officials they’re answerable to those who appoint them. He noted this is his personal opinion.
Terrie Cook agreed with Carl. She said otherwise you’re going to have 2 boards that agree all the time for the most part.
Charter Comment…Cathy Bowmar stated the “pro” for elected is your answerable to the public. The “con” might be: Would you get more qualified people? Kathy Lynch responded that the voters decide who is “qualified”. She noted that everyone currently on FinCom has run for election.
Number of FinCom Members and Term of Office
Fred’s feeling is that “7” is a good, very workable number; and he thinks the 3-year term is a good term.
Finance Department
In answer to Dr. Petti’s question: Do you think there should be a Finance Department? Fred Blythe responded that we pretty much have one now. He stated he’d like to see a Town business manager added. He noted that we’re a 37-Million Dollar “corporation”, but we’re not running like a corporation. It has to be pulled together.
Carl Meredith thinks Charter Commission should look at entire Town structure. Also, Finance group should be under the Town Administrator (or should title be Business Administrator?). Terrie Cook agreed and said look at the whole thing.
General feeling: “CEO” and “CFO” should be working together.
Role of FinCom
Carl sees FinCom role as a Committee that has oversight and review function independently of Town government. As elected officials, we could provide input to this business administrator. Carl noted they have a very proactive role in being on top of what’s going on financially with respect to the budget, for example:
Currently Departments submit budget and FinCom and Selectmen review separately. Then they get together and hash out differences. What should change is that instead of budgets coming from Departments, the budget should come from business manager.
Kathy feels FinCom should have more say and that FinCom should be part of union negotiations. Terrie feels more pressing need is to identify union contracts; FinCom should be more involved.
Charter Comment…Chuck Gasior asked if they get information they need from the departments. Answer: Yes, usually get it within 10-14 days.
Chuck then asked do you think organization structure of School Board is better? Kathy Lynch said State laws dictate what you have to have. Terrie Cook thinks School Committee worked well. Jim Morgan said your looking at 2 different animals. School Committee has lot of authority from Legislature. School wields a “big stick”.
Chuck asked what does Town Administrator do in the budget process? Response: She reviews, and cuts, and does a lot of input.
Conclusion
Jim Morgan said FinCom making a conscientious effort to “clean up the act”.
Carl Meredith said they would take up the questions and will try to submit a consensus to the Commission.
Juan mentioned that one thing many charters have is process and role of FinCom, etc. and that we’d like your input on budget process that FinCom would like followed.
Each of the Commissioners thanked FinCom for coming; and Jerry Blumengarten elaborated stating it was illuminating; we did listen and we did learn. FinCom members then exited.
Dr. Petti then turned to the Commission meeting agenda items.
Old Business
Dean Arden said he would like to add to list of questions to Selectmen is whether or not they’d support nonbinding advisory resolution next May. Specifically, Open Town Meeting or Representative Town Meeting?
Dean motioned we ask for $10,000 instead of the $20,000 since he’s not sure we can justify. Ed seconded this motion.
Discussion…Cathy wants to see a budget so we know the justification so she would like to see this Motion tabled.
Motion and Second withdrawn.
Ed said he would hope within next few weeks to have attorney here to give us a free-of-charge presentation. Ed will have something here within next few weeks or at least get something in writing. Ed motioned that Commission agree to give him until end of August to get information from the attorney and we follow Cathy’s request to have a budget to show justification for moneys needed. This motion was seconded by Dean and unanimously carried.
Juan motioned that $250. be allocated for secretarial services through end of September; Cathy seconded the motion; and it was unanimously carried.
Bea Perkins asked if she could make a comment. She said: “Where did Design Review Committee come from? She said they were all appointed. They didn’t have to run. People out there with all sorts of qualifications who will not run, but they come out of the closet to be appointed.”
Ed called Point of Order to state that Chapter 43B says Preliminary Report can be published in newspaper…Commission shall provide sufficient copies to town Clerk to provide to registered voter requesting same. The point being that Preliminary Report did not have to be distributed to each registered voter. Juan agreed, but said insofar as costs are concerned the cost of publishing in paper is very expensive.
Review of Working Draft Charter
Dr. Petti turned the meeting over to Juan since he had done the work in preparing the work draft. The Commission went through the rough draft section by section and Juan will make following changes to next working draft version:
Commissioners thanked Juan for the good job in putting the work draft together.
Public Comments…None.
Executive Session
Dean Arden requested going into Executive Session to discuss personnel issues. Chairperson Elizabeth Petti took a roll call to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel issues.
VOTED 5-3; 1-ABSTAIN.
Petti – abstain.
Bacigalupi, Bowmar, Halpern – opposed.
Arden, Blumengarten, Gasior, Larkin, Maney – approved.
ADJOURNMENT
Juan Bacigalupi motioned the public meeting be adjourned; Cathy Bowmar seconded the motion; and it was unanimously approved. The public meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jean Giliberti
Recording Secretary
