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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-STMARC-rpt.pdf % / ln To the Board of Selectmen I have the honor to transmit the report of the Selectmen-Town Manager Act Review Committee which you appointed on May 17, 1982 Members included Fred C Bailey, Lincoln P Cole, Jr , Dan H Fenn , Jr , Homer J Hagedorn (Chairman) , Mary W Miley, Anne R. Scigliano, and Arthur C Smith The committee conducted a citizens ' hearing on June 21 , 1982 and a separate hearing for elected and appointed officials on July 6, 1982. In addition, we have interviewed a number of interested persons , including members of the Structure of Government Committee which i drafted the Act in 1966-68 and who also participated in a review of the implementation and early operational period of the Act in 1972 The committee met a total of _ times The present committee is prepared to discuss its findings or otherwise amplify them on request I am pleased to be able to report to you now the results of the committee' s deliberations Sincerely, Homer J Hagedorn, Chairman DRAFT Report of the Selectmen/Town Manager Act Review Committee INTRODUCTION The Board of Selectmen on May 17, 1982, appointed a Selectmen/Town Manager Act Review Committee The committee was charged to • review the Act; • recommend appropriate changes and/or revisions to be considered by the Selectmen and Town Meeting.; • keep within the current framework ("Reconsideration of whether Lexington should continue with a Selectmen/Town Manager form of government is not within the purview of the Committee's charge") ; • report by November 2, 1982 The committee requested and was given an extension of the time permitted to it; otherwise it has kept to the terms of the charge The committee, from the knowledge and experience of its members and from the statements made to it by interested citizens and officials of the town, has concluded that the Act is in general working acceptably well The additions and revisions we suggest in this report are intended to facilitate the better realization of the principles behind the Act, not 1 DRAFT fundamentally to change them In essence, thtee classes of revisions have been recommended (1 ) housekeeping provisions that are worthy of attention only because other amendments are also being considered; (2) items that we suggest be deleted from the Act because of their binding the town too rigidly to specific procedures that should be within the power of the town to change without recourse to the legislature; and (3) a few items intended to facilitate citizen participation We are aware of two major trends whose impact we think so far to be insufficient to warrant changes in the Act, but which deserve watching, in case their effects eventually become strong in ways that reach to the essence of our form of government The first of these trends is that related to Proposition 2 1/2 -- tax reform, expenditure restriction, limitation on School Committee autonomy The issue that appears to be closest to the surface is school building maintenance, but other aspects of the relationship of the Town Meeting, the Selectmen (and Manager) , and the School Committee (and School Superintendent) may well also come into prominence The second trend is that towards increasing professionalism in town government Several volunteer boards, committees, and commissions whose roles were operational or administrative a decade ago or a generation past are now served by trained staff These volunteer bodies may or may not have autonomous roles in formulating policy, but their emphasis has certainly shifted toward policy and away from program administration Coordination among such committees and boards, their appointment, and their roles may have to be systematically reexamined at some future time 2 DkMri f The substance of our report is keyed to the Act and is presented by section number and title to permit easy reference and to help keep the report as brief as possible FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 3 DRAFT Section 2(b) Appointed Officials FINDING The Selectmen appoint only two remunerated officials in addition to the Town Manager Their responsibilities extend, professionally, as broadly as do the Town Manager's, in the sense that they must produce work directly responsive to the needs of boards, committees, or commissions other than the Board of Selectmen Presently, this distinction is conferred on Town Counsel and on Town Comptroller We believe that remunerated officials in this category should be evaluated as well as appointed by the Selectmen , and that in their evaluation they should solicit and include the views of other affected boards , committees and commissions Even if the selectmen choose to delegate their day-to-day supervision or contact with these officials to the Town Manager, the evaluative function should not be delegated, since the proficiency and sensitivity with which the citizen boards, committees and commissions are served goes to the very heart of citizen participation Citizen participation is alluded to in the Act only by the fact that the citizen bodies are mentioned Therefore, it is awkward to write in the perspective of citizen participation without a basic redrafting which we do not believe is necessary if the town and the legislature will agree to include language on performance appraisal in Section 2 SUGGESTION Strike the words in Section 2(b) and replace them with the following words 4 "DRAFT" i "The Selectmen shall appoint a town comptroller and a town counsel For the purpose of an annual evaluation, the Selectmen shall solicit information describing the performance of these officials from the Town Manager and from the Chairmen of the Boards, Committees and Commissions served from time to time by these officials " '! "The Selectmen shall appoint a board of appeals, the trustees of public trusts, the town celebrations committee, the historic districts commission in accordance with chapter four hundred and forty-seven of the acts of nineteen hundred and fifty-six, the fence viewers, registrars of voters other than the town clerk, election officers, and such other officers, boards and committees as they shall hereafter be directed to appoint by by-law or vote of the town " , 5 DRAFT Section 2(e) Appointed Officials FINDING The Town Manager has been given the authority to appoint the salaried officials of the Town, with certain named exceptions This principle was followed in the Act Its application was complicated by the need expressly to deal with the host of prior existing titles, appointment procedures and organizational arrangements Some of the statements in Section 2 were phrased as they were to make it specific what to do during a transition from the former structure to the present structure, a transition that was completed over a decade ago The most satisfactory charters require amendment only when major issues are at stake Some organizational arrangements presently in the Act and important in themselves are not suitable for retaining in the Act, because they ought to be easy to change Conversely, what is important enough to be in the charter should be subject to change only by changing the charter Within the last decade, the building inspector has been elevated so that his duties include new responsibilities and he is now called the Building Commissioner, in conformity with other requirements The Cemetery Superintendent is no longer an immediate subordinate of the Town Manager The title of Chief Fire Engineer has come to seem increasingly anachronistic We believe that official titles should conform with everyday practice, but a more important principle is also applicable Salaried officials whose titles and duties are not covered by sections in the General By-Laws of the Town, or whose reporting relationships are properly left to the discretion of the Town Manager, should not be mentioned in the charter We 6 "DRAFT" believe that naming a salaried official as an appointee of the Town Manager should embody that appointment in the basic structure so deeply that it will not be changed unless manager, selectmen and town meeting agree (see suggestion made later, section 9) SUGGESTIONS Strike from the list of appointees of the Town Manager in F Section 2(e) the words "a chief fire engineer" and replace by the words "a fire chief " Strike from the list of appointees of the Town Manager the words "a superintendent of public works, a building inspector, a cemetery superintendent," and replace by the words "a director of public works, a building commissioner " 7 "DRAFT" Section 2(e) Appointed Officials FINDING Vigorous citizen participation characterizes Lexington Citizen committees should receive consistent indication that their membership, purpose and value is esteemed by the town, Citizen committees, boarlds and , commissions appointed by the Town Manager should accordingly be asked to provide input when the Town Manager is in the process of appointing new members All boards, committees and commissions supported by salaried staff should also be asked for their advice when the Town Manager is appointing staff to serve these boards, committees or commissions SUGGESTION To the words in section 2(e) add at the end the following new paragraph "In making appointments to boards, committees and commissions or to the staffs of such boards, committees and commissions, the Manager shall solicit information from the chairmen of such groups " 8 Section 3 Membership,. Terms; Powers, Duties• and Responsibi-lities f FINDING There seem to 'be ho' remaining reasons to perpetuate specific transitional language. in thQ'.charter' to transfer powers of,.'the,,fiee commissioners and cemetery commissioners, to the Town-Manager, es,ped a1'ly since •more general `language 'Pater' in the .section 'has, the; same effect 4' �. SUGGESTION Strike from. Section 3 the words !'The .board. of• fire commissioners shall be. abolished " 'to the 'endd of the par graph., 'N., .1 J :. .1 r % Please insert this as Page 8a 'Of the Selectmen/Town Manager Act ReVieW Committee .Report Phyllis Smith PECEIVEDI :>E{Fc C.v; .'�. r, 8a "DRAFT" Section 5 Appointment of a Town Manager FINDING. The profession of Town Manager having matured sufficiently ti since 1969 to make available areater number of more highly g g y qualified applicants, we believe that Lexington should restrict itself to appointing as Town Manager only those persons who have previous directly relevant experience in municipal management, and have thereby demonstrated that they have elected professional careers as municipal managers for several years before coming to Lexington, and have become well experienced 1 as well as professionally trained The term "administrator" is used below, in conformity with the practice of the International City Manager's Association (ICMA) itSUGGESTION. Strike the words of the first sentence of Section 5 and ti replace them with the words "The Selectmen shall appoint, for a term not to exceed three years, a Town Manager The person selected shall be one who has held or is holding the position of appointed overall chief administrator or assistant administrator, in a city, town or county in the United States " 9 DRAFT Section 5 Appdintment of a Town Manager FINDING There is potential benefit to the Town of Lexington in permitting the Town Manager to engage in a limited amount of teaching, consulting, and other professionally stimulating activity The Act precludes such engagement, at least when recompensed, or done with such regularity as to be construed as a business or occupation We believe that the Selectmen can regulate this kind of activity if given the obligation to do so SUGGESTION: To the sentence in Section 5 that is worded "The Town .Manager shall not hold any elective office nor engage in any other business or occupation during his term," add the following words "except for part-time consultative or teaching duties, directly related to the profession of municipal management and with the specific consent of the Selectmen " • 10 Uivu Section 7 Removal of the Manager FINDING In the years since the Act was approved, standards with regard to public disclosure of official information have changed We believe that an ousted manager should be able to receive a public hearing if (s)he chooses, concerning the facts surrounding his removal SUGGESTION Strike the words in Section 7 reading "No public hearing shall be held if four or more Selectmen vote for his removal " Also strike the word "Otherwise" from the sentence in Section 7 next following iI f $ II 11 �f DRAFT Section 9 Powers and Duties of the Manager f FINDING Consistent with the principles discussed earlier in connection with Sections 2(b) and 2(e), we believe that those specific elements of structure which are intended to be within the authority of the Town Manager to alter should be omitted from the Act Those elements mentioned in the Act should be beyond his authority to alter The change suggested is intended to make these principles consistent throughout the;Act SUGGESTIONS To the words in Section 9(b) add the following words at the end "except that the Town Manager may not consolidate with one another offices or departments of those officials named in Section 2(e) , nor abolish their offices, nor cause any of the officials named in Section 2(e) to report to him other than directly, without the approval of the Selectmen and the town meeting" 12 DRAFT Section 9(c) Powers and Duties of the Manager FINDING The Manager appoints several salaried officials who work for boards, committees, or commissions of non-salaried volunteer members, at least in part Whether these volunteer boards , committees or commissions are elected, appointed by the Manager, or otherwise chosen, it is important to the continued participation of high-quality volunteers to make it easy for them to get the attention and the support of staff persons assigned to them and to provide guidance on work priorities to them The Act presently makes no mention of the obligation of these salaried officials to satisfy their boards, committees and commissions, nor of any obligation on the part of the Town Manager to see that they do We believe these obligations should be clarified SUGGESTION To the end of Section 9(c) , add the following words "The Manager shall annually obtain information describing the performance r of employees of the Town assigned to citizen volunteer boards, committees and commissions He shall request such information from the chairmen of boards, committees and commissions served by salaried officials he appoints, and shall take such information into account in making his own j performance evaluations of these salaried employees 13 4 DRAFT Section 9(d) Powers and Duties of the Manager FINDING The Town Manager and his staff are presently bringing construotion contracts to the Board of Selectmen for award, and later for signature The Selectmen retain this administrative duty because they act as the board of public works under the Acts of 1922 There has been no instance so far in which it has been alleged that this second presentation of the contract to the Selectmen hes resulted in any changes, or the discovery of any new information relevant to the award There should be no change between award and signature because the award is based on bids that respond to reasonably detailed specifications The substantive terms of the contract, in other words, are almost all determined before the award is voted and final negotiation authorized However, it has been also the case that therequirement for Selectman signature has slowed down the contracting process, especially at seasons of the year in which the Selectmen are not meeting weekly Since the Town Manager is responsible for other purchasing and contract awards for activities under his supervision, it is actually a relatively small step to delegate to him the approval and issue of construction contracts previously awarded by r vote of the Board of Selectmen SUGGESTION Add to the end of Section 9(d) "Bids for Public Works Contracts awarded by vote of the Selectmen acting as the board of public works shall then be negotiated by the Manager, and if the terms of the award r are met in the resulting contract documents, the Manager shall sign those contracts on behalf of the Town " 14 • ALTERNATE SUGGESTION The Act does not specifically preclude the Selectmen from simplifying the contracting process by their own action We suggest that they do so, in any case, and that if they do, the language in Section 9(d) can be kept as it is 1 { II ti 15 DRAFT Section 12 Estimate of Capital Expenditures and Section 13 Estimate of Annual Expenditures FINDING. The budgeting calendar in Sections 12 and 13 is impossible to adhere to, because of change in the fiscal year of the town, because of the now customarily late date of arrival of the so-called "cherry sheet" that details the funds to be received from the state, and because of the f. very slim financial margins under which the town operates as a consequence of Proposition 2 1/2 There is no reason to suppose that the next decade will be any less filled with change than the one just past It therefore seems the better course to remove the detailed budgeting calendar from the charter and to move a revised calendar and procedure to the General By-Laws, so that it can be changed by the town as needed, but only consistent with the framework established by the charter SUGGESTION A special committee including' the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, the Chairman of the Capital Expenditures Committee, the Chairman of the School Committee, the Chairman of the Town Meeting Members Association and the Town Manager should be convened to revise the budget calendars and arrange for coordinated town meeting action to precede or be properly keyed to charter revision The Act should be revised as follows Strike the words in Section 12 and replace them with the words 16 DRAFT "The Town Manager shall be responsible annually for preparing careful , detailed capital expenditures estimates for the timely use of the Board of Selectmen, the Appropriation Committee, the Capital Expenditures Committee, and the town meeting for the next fiscal year and for each of the four subsequent years, showing specifically the amount necessary to be provided for each office, department and activity and a statement of the amounts required to meet the interest and maturing bonds and notes or other indebtedness of the town The Capital Expenditures Committee, the Appropriation Committee, and the Board of Selectmen shall all receive the Town Manager's capital expenditures budget recommendation in time to permit orderly and well-considered recommendations to the annual town meeting " "The Board of Selectmen shall consider the capital budget submitted by the Town Manager and, after due discussion with the Capital Expenditures Committee and the Appropriation Committee, shall recommend to the town at the annual town meeting those capital expenditures and policies relative thereto as they deem appropriateoand proper in the interests of the town " 17 DRAFT Strike the references to specific dates to be found in Section 13, and replace them with more general language Specifically, in Section 13, paragraph one, strike the words "first day of December" and replace them with the words "date designated in the General By-Laws of the Town " In Section 13, paragraph two, strike the words "twentieth day of December" and replace them with the words "date designated in the General By-Laws of the Town " 18 Section 13 Estimate of Annual Expenditures FINDING The ambiguity or vagueness about whose budget is legally before the Town Meeting is easily resolved. The custom for many years has been for the Selectmen's budget to be the one presented to Town Meeting We see no compelling reason to change the custom, since it keeps the Selectmen, who are responsible for the budget and for expenditures under it, in control of the sums actually recommended initially to the Town Meeting The alternative is to ask the Appropriation Committee to present a budget they prepare as is done in some towns elsewhere in Massachusetts Our General By-Law Article XIII, Section 5, is not specific It simply says "a budget" is to be submitted to the town, so the by-law is compatible with the budget being that of the Selectmen We believe the practice of distributing a separate Appropriation Committee budget would introduce unnecessary confusion into the process , and would imply a role for the Appropriation Committee other than that of studying and recommending to the town its advice on all expenditures (and other subjects that it chooses to consider as well ) SUGGESTION Add to Section 13 a third paragraph consisting Of the following words "The Selectmen's budget is to be submitted to the town according to the calendar and the method prescribed in the General By-Laws of the town The Appropriation Committee relates its annual expenditures recommendations to the town to the Selectmen's budget " 19 Y Ili Respectfully submitted, Fred C Bailey Lincoln P Cole, Jr Dan H Fenn, Jr Homer J Hagedorn, Chairman Mary W Miley Anne R. Scigliano Arthur C Smith 1 20