Helpful Resources for Town Meeting Members
I thought it would be helpful to collect any helpful resources that Town Meeting Members could review to increase their knowledge and understanding of the process behind municipal government.
To start, I've found the Mass Division of Local Services' "Guide to Financial Management for Town Officials" to be a good introduction to certain procedures and roles. It can be found at the link below. I'm sure for some this might be common knowledge, but for others it might be new.
https://www.mass.gov/doc/a-guide-to-financial-management-for-town-officials/download
Comments
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I am copy/pasting Town Clerk Mary Ellen Lannon's Nov. 14, 2023 email and its attachments here so that it might be reviewed by future Town Meeting Members:
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Hello Town Meeting Members,
As the Town Clerk, I would like to share with you some significant information that I believe is important regarding process and procedure in Winchester as it relates to Representative Town Meeting. New England Town Meeting form of government is unique to New England, most of the nations’ cities and towns, outside of New England are governed by City Councils or Town Councils and in some cases by county form of government. I want to point out a few essential details that may assist in your deliberations on the final articles of the Fall Town Meeting as well as provide general information.
There was great confusion surrounding Article 29 last evening. Therefore, I am providing some documents for you all to hopefully find time to read and consider as Article 30 comes to the floor on Thursday.
Winchester’s Town Meeting used to be conducted as an Open Town Meeting from the town’s foundation through the 1970’s. In the mid 1970’s the town decided to create what is known as a HOME RULE CHARTER and a CODE OF BYLAW. Essentially, these documents are the Constitution of Winchester. These documents were written, reviewed, studied, presented, and eventually voted on by the electors of the town. Over the years the community has 1) amended the CODE OF BYLAW via Town Meeting and 2) voted at the ballot box any changes to the HOME RULE CHARTER.
In March of 1976, the electors of Winchester supported by majority vote the HOME RULE CHARTER and CODE OF BYLAW. These documents set up the local government with great specificity, it laid out the structure, the elected offices, financial administration just to name a few. Both documents are nearly 48 years old. Over the decades, the Representative Town Meeting has had many articles to amend or create which make up the CODE OF BYLAW. When these warrant articles are presented to the town meeting, either by a citizen’s petition, a department head or an elected or appointed board or committee ALL OF THE AMENDMENTS or ADDITIONS to the CODE OF BYLAW are vetted by the standing committee found in Chapter 2 Section 4 of the CODE OF BYLAW;
https://ecode360.com/42151502 known as the COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS. This group is made up of 8 members (equitable representation) from the town meeting membership, one from each precinct. It is this standing committee that not only reports to Town Meeting on all new or amended bylaws; the committee also is required to perform a Decennial Review of the CODE OF BYLAWS. (every 10 years.)
As Town Clerk it is one of my clerical duties to be ex-officio to the COGR when it comes time for the Decennial Review. The last official review brought to the town meeting was conducted in 2008. The review was due in 2018. At that time Winchester was experiencing the retirement of our Town Manager, Richard Howard, the then new Town Manager Lisa Wong was getting acclimated to her new post and then COVID hit. Years have flown by, and we are now overdue. There is an opportunity to conduct the full review with a motion at either this fall’s town meeting or next spring’s town meeting 2024.
Both Article 29 and Article 30 are articles that are seeking amendments to the current language and ironically, some of the same language. While it is totally appropriate for amendments to be presented in the manner the two Citizens Petitions submitted; Winchester has a legal requirement to review all sections of the CODE at once and come back to Town Meeting for presentation and approval.
Additionally, I am attaching the history of the Finance Committee because many of you have asked:
- Finance Committee formed by the town in 1976 as a Standing Committee in the Code of Bylaw
- 1992 CODE OF BYLAW amendment was made at town meeting to change the method of appointment when a vacancy occurs prior to the end of a term.
- It was amended from remaining members of the finance committee filling the vacancy to requiring vacancies to be appointed in the same manner as a full-term member (3-member committee SB Chair/ FC Chair / Moderator) https://ecode360.com/42151502
- Winchester was cutting edge back in 1976 with the idea of a joint appointment committee. It allows for debate and difference at the appointment table.
- It is my office that posts the 5 seats to FINCOM each spring. It is required that appointments be made within 30 days of the dissolvement of the Spring Town Meeting. The reason for this is to capture the interest of not only the current seated members but also having just finished town meeting perhaps to gain interest from new members well in advance of the summer vacation time.
- Winchester has delayed these appointments over the years to many months after the close of the spring town meeting and this has brought confusion as to which FinCom Chair is to be on the appointment committee.
- When the appointments were conducted within the 30 days of adjournment it has always been the chair that served at the Spring Town Meeting that sits on the appointment committee.
In summary many of my duties as the Town Clerk are to document the towns actions, take minutes, record attendance, provide guidance on current and past practices, and to educate the residents, voters, and volunteers on elections, conflicts of interest, open meeting law and town meeting. I feel strongly that the pandemic and time in remote meetings has provided for significant information to fall through the cracks. There are some missing links in how the local government functions and I feel it is my duty to point out these important pieces of history, procedure, and law to the town meeting.
Form follows function.
If you should have any follow up questions, please feel free to reach out to me anytime.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this long email.
Respectfully,
MaryEllen Lannon, CMC
Winchester Town Clerk