06/21/2016

Public hearing July 11 on changes to ordinance governing town boards, committees

The Town Council is considering changes to its system for citizen boards and committees.

A public hearing on a complete rewrite of the current Boards and Commissions Ordinance, as well as related changes to the Shooting Range Ordinance and Conservation Ordinance, will be held at the council's meeting July 11, 2016.

The ordinance committee, a three-member subcommittee of the Town Council, is recommending a complete rewrite of the town's ordinance governing citizen boards and committees.

Aside from reformatting and reorganizing the current document, the rewrite renames all appointed citizen bodies "committees" to more clearly reflect their advisory roles to the Town Council. Exceptions are quasi-judicial bodies such as the Planning Board, Board of Assessment Review and the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The ordinance committee is also recommending that members of the Firing Range Committee, the committee charged with reviewing and recommending applications for permits to operate shooting ranges in town, be appointed using the same criteria as those for other committees, rather than those outlined in the Shooting Range Ordinance; and, that a section governing open-space evaluation be moved to the Conservation Ordinance.

"I think that I'm very pleased with what we came up with," said Councilor Jessica Sullivan, a member of the ordinance committee. "I think it's going to make it a lot easier for people going forward to quickly look up these boards and committees and see what they are and see what they do," she said.

Separate recommendations to be discussed at workshop

At the same time, the ordinance subcommittee is recommending the council consider several other changes, which the council will discuss at a future workshop. These include:

• Reducing the number of committee members from seven to five, considering committee responsibilities and residents' interest in volunteering for open seats.
• Review the role and/or the need for Town Council liaisons to standing boards.
• Reduce the number of town councilors on the Thomas Memorial Library Foundation Board.
• Assuring senior citizen representation on the Community Services Committee.

In a related matter, the council on June 13 agreed to make the Community Services Advisory Commission, currently under the auspices of the School Department, an ad hoc "Community Services Committee" when Community Services becomes a town department on July 1, pending adoption of the new Boards and Committees Ordinance. Current committee membership will remain.