It truly is amazing the breadth of consideration given by the framers of our founding documents. It is even more amazing that this breadth of consideration is evident not just at the federal level, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights and at the state level with the state Constitution but, it goes all the way town to our little town’s Charter. The Charter which originated in 1951 is an amazing living breathing document. In just 27 pages the framers not only outline form of government under which the town will operate, the operation of our government, the powers and duties of elected and appointed officials, and the rights of the citizen legislature, does so in such a way that these apply in any era. I gained a much greater appreciation for Rumford’s Town Charter on Wednesday night when I was messaged by an individual who was reviewing the Charter to see if they wanted to submit any recommendations to the Charter Commission. In reading through the Charter, this individual came to Article IIIWARRANTS FOR MEETINGS AND TOWN REFERENDA. The individual became concerned when reading Article III Section 3A “Selectpersons Hearing: The Board shall receive a proposed budget for the operations of the Town (aside from initiated articles) from the Town Manager no later than March 20th of each year for its review. The Board shall hold one public hearing on the budget during the fourth week of March. At the hearing, the Chairperson of the Board of Selectpersons shall present the budget and be responsible for running the hearing. The hearing shall be open to comments from Selectpersons, the Town Manager, department heads and any citizen or taxpayer of the Town of Rumford. The Chairperson shall follow Roberts Rules of Order for administering the hearing. The Selectpersons shall vote to approve or modify the budget proposed by the Town Manager. Notice of this meeting shall be as provided in Article V of this Charter for notices of Town meetings.” The individual reading this knew the Rumford Board of Selectpersons had two meetings scheduled two public hearings on the budget for March 6th and March 13th neither of which is in the 4th week of March. These meetings would therefore be in violation of the Town’s Charter. The individual asked me to read through Article III to get my opinion. What I found was not just Charter violations with these two items on the Town Meeting preparation schedule, but several other scheduling errors and instruction errors. After a few back and forth messages online, the individual suggested we talk by phone and did so. Here is what we found: The Budget Process Schedule for FY 2013-2014 has February 18, “Initiated Article Requests due at Town Manager’s Office.” However, Article III Section 5. Procedure for Initiated Articles reads, “The Board of Selectpersons annually shall hold two public hearings one during the 3rd and one during the 4th week of March, for the purpose of receiving proposals for articles, other than those related to Ordinances to be included in the warrant for the next annual Town budget referendum,” putting Initiated Article Requests as due at the meeting for this purpose the 4th week of March delivered by the requester to the Board at the meeting and not a month and a half earlier, delivered to the Town Manager. So if you wish to submit an Initiated Article Request and missed the non-Charter compliant February 18 to the Town Manager published deadline, you are in luck, you have until the Initiated Article Hearing the 4th week in March, the scheduled date, March 24. Also, Article III Section 5 paragraph 4 reads, “To the end that brevity and orderly form shall result, all boards, commissions, departments and officials submitting proposals involving appropriations of money shall group all related items, wherever practical and legal, under one () article, in such form that the total appropriation requested shall appear as well as the itemized allocation of such total.” Correcting this oversight will make for a much shorter ballot come June as entities that have had multiple Initiated Articles appearing on the ballot i.e. Holy Savior School and GRCC will now have one Initiated Article that itemizes than totals the request the same way we see multiple lines under most of the town budget articles. If you are submitting an Initiated Article, you can take a second trip to present to the Finance Committee off your calendar as there is nothing in the Charter that says the Finance Committee is presented with these, no schedule for when the Finance Committee would hear them, nothing. Apparently we have been doing these second runs for a while when it was either never in the Charter for Initiated Articles or at some point the Charter was changed eliminating the involvement of the Finance Committee in the Initiated Article process. Anyone considering an Initiated Article Request should go to the Town’s website and review Article III Section 5 of the Charter so you know your rights and responsibilities. Using the Budget process Schedule, the delivery date to the Finance Committee from the Board of Selectmen of the Budget Books on March 31 was non-compliant. Now that the date for the Selectmen to hold their public hearing as been changed to the compliant date of March 24th, March 31 delivery date is compliant with the 5 business day deadline. So why was and is the setting of these dates in the Charter so important? So the people can plan accordingly to submit Initiated Article Requests, to attend the meetings to participate, and so everyone is included. It is amazing how important the ability to be informed and plan can be. Last weekend, I attended the Regional Republican Caucuses held in Rumford Town Hall Auditorium. We were all anticipating a large turnout based on the responses received to the calls made notifying folks in the 7 days before the Caucuses. It turned out to be the worst turnout ever. It didn’t take long to figure out why as we compared notes. First, these caucuses have been held in April for as long as any of us can remember with the convention held the end of May/first of June. We were caucusing the last day the state organization allowed this year, March 1! Most of our regular attendees are still in Florida, Arizona, and other warm places escaping the bitter cold and snow that will continue for at least another month. The temperatures were very low, sidewalks are impassable for walkers, and the roads are terrible between the ice and potholes that threaten to swallow even the largest commercial vehicle, keeping even those in the area home. Flu and winter colds seem to be at an ongoing peak keeping even more from attending. In short changing from the traditional schedule of late April Caucuses took out attendance. When the founders drafted and voters approved the first Rumford Charter back in 1951, communications aren’t what they are today. If you didn’t live in town and walk to the mill or business districts to work, chances were you lived out on a rural farm and didn’t get into town often. Town Meeting and these hearings were big social events that people planned the whole year for. Having the weeks specified in the Charter gave people the ability to plan. Today, we have somewhat better communications, and the farming family that rarely leaves the farm is rare today. Having the weeks specified however continues to be critical as our society becomes more mobile. Many people go to warmer climates for the winter, knowing what weeks important meetings will take place back here may well dictate when they return. Also knowing when these occur annually makes it possible to consider when planning vacations to distant parts and other events. Case in point, Selectperson Jolene Lovejoy was not able to attend the Board of Selectpersons Public Hearing and Vote on Department Budgets last night (March 6). Two selectpersons were not going to be able to attend the March 13 Board of Selectmen’s Public Hearing and Vote on Department Budgets. Having selectpersons absent from these important decision making meetings is just not acceptable. Providing in the Charter a week when the Public Hearing and Vote is to take place and adhere to that requirement gives our elected officials no excuse for not attending and participating in one of the most important meetings and functions, voting on department budgets to present to the voters, they perform all year. I expect that our founders in their careful consideration and deliberations over the Town Charter knew exactly what they were doing when they set these dates into the Charter. I sincerely hope that the current Charter Commission will be as careful in there consideration and deliberations over the Charter they seek to propose to the voters by including dates and other carefully detailed procedures like those found under Initiated Articles in the offering to have a smoothly and efficiently operated government by and for the people of Rumford.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 15:36:57 +0000
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