UPDATE: This report was updated at 1 pm on April 26 to correct and add references in the first selectman's input.

* * * * *

The current Charter Revision Commission (CRC) held a regular meeting virtually April 21 that included a lot of discussion around actions taken by previous commissions, as well as receiving input on a number of the charges from First Selectman Dan Rosenthal.

Andy Buzzi, CRC chair, also issued marching orders to his fellow commissioners regarding work he expects each member to put in on three workgroups examining specific charges, and reiterating his hope to see the planned revisions move through research, deliberations, and delivery to the Legislative Council with a goal to have any approved recommendations in front of local voters this fall.

“My hope is to be in position to have a draft recommendation by July,” Buzzi said, adding that those recommendations would accrue to the council immediately following a public hearing in order to expedite getting proposed revisions on ballot in time for Election Day.

Buzzi also hopes to jump-start the commission’s work by possibly acting on a handful of the less complex charges as early as the CRC’s next regular meeting, May 12. That meeting or the one scheduled for May 19 will also feature input from Board of Education leaders and the Board of Finance chair.

Buzzi said former First Selectman Herb Rosenthal has also asked to speak during a near-future CRC meeting.

During this week’s meeting, the chairman circulated proposed staffing of the workgroups, including one whose sole focus will be on the charge of evaluating whether the town’s Board of Finance should be eliminated. Another workgroup will be dedicated to reviewing and recommending how to proceed with charges involving the Board of Education.

Buzzi said each workgroup should have a four-tiered goal: research, presentation, discussion, and action. By keeping each group to two members with Buzzi as an ex-officio member of each, the groups would be able to legally meet and conduct their business without publicly posting their meeting notices, or holding those meetings publicly.

At the same time, he asked all members to retain all the materials and notes taken during their meetings in the event they are needed or requested for review by any member of the public. Before the next meeting, Buzzi said he expects the groups to convene, figure out how to address the charges before them, and how each group will approach any researching tasks.

The CRC chairman also acknowledged that by law, the commission could entertain any revisions above and beyond those charges coming from the council. He asked any member with ideas about added revisions to put them forward for consideration by the entire commission.

Rosenthal’s Input

Dan Rosenthal spent just over an hour at the top of the meeting reviewing a number of charges and his ideas or reactions to them for commissioners to consider. Among the issues he highlighted:

*Increasing the dollar limit imposed on the disposition of any town property before any such proposal must go before voters for approval.

The first selectman said the current requirement to send any acquisition of property in excess of $1.5 million to voters for endorsement is a sound practice, but putting that same dollar limitation of the disposition of town property is not in the best interest of taxpayers.

Rosenthal said that hitting a $1.5 million cap on the dispositions of real property is not hard to do, and depending on the timing, a disposition authorization might languish for as long as 11 months waiting to appear on the annual budget ballot. His suggestion was revising the charter to increase the disposition cap to one mill — which this year equals approximately $3.3 million. (One mill equals one dollar for each $1,000 in taxable property.)

*Eliminating a restriction on financial transfers between departments.

Rosenthal outlined a scenario to The Newtown Bee where a $500 transfer between the Highway Department’s winter maintenance budget and a personnel budget line would be allowed, but a similar transfer between departments would require a presentation to, and approval of, the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance, and the Legislative Council before it could be made. The charter currently permits transfers within the same department up to $50,000.

*De-linking emergency and special appropriations.

Currently the council has a one mill cap for appropriations. But Rosenthal noted that when Newtown was hit with an intense macroburst storm in 2018 and needed an emergency appropriation for response, the council was already at its appropriations limit — which forced the request to go before voters for authorization. The suggested resolution is a charter change that directs emergency appropriations to be deemed “emergency” by the council with a supermajority vote. Emergency appropriation funds would then not count toward the one mill cap limitation for appropriations.

*Eliminating the requirement for all appropriations — regardless of their funding source — to go to referendum for voter approval.

Rosenthal pointed out that while it is certainly proper for taxpayers to weigh in on appropriations that impact their own wallets, instances where appropriations involve no taxpayer impact should not be held for a vote. For example, if the community receives a $500,000 grant to complete a $500,000 open space acquisition, the authorization should not be delayed or forced to go to referendum before it can be accepted.

BOF, BOE Identities

*Removing the Board of Finance from the charter.

The first selectman said he is against removing the Board of Finance from the charter, and was not supportive of appointing an alternate panel of advisory members to the council. Rosenthal noted that the current finance board was seated as a result of a “charter revision gone wrong.” He noted that in 2000, a charter review group recommended creating a Board of Finance, but the council then rejected the idea. The charter commission then petitioned and won the opportunity to place a finance board on the referendum ballot, but only some measures to that end passed while others failed, effectively creating the elected panel Newtown has today.

Rosenthal suggested considering keeping the Board of Finance, but amending the charter to assign specific policy-making responsibility and leaving duties like the budget and capital planning review and approval exclusively to the council. As a policy-making board, the first selectman and several commissioners agreed that body should be elected, and expressed concern that appointments could become politicized versus trusting in voters to seat the board members.

*Considering whether the first selectman should be removed as an ex-officio member of the Board of Education, and further clarifying whether the school board is a town department or a state agency identified as an extension of the Connecticut Board of Education.

Rosenthal summarily rejected the notion of being removed as an ex-officio member of the school board — a position the top office holder is also currently granted on all town boards and commissions. While Rosenthal said neither he nor any recent first selectman has abused the privilege to assert him or herself into school board meeting agendas, he said the first selectman should retain that right, especially when any pending Board of Education action has significant taxpayer impact or policy making affects the community at large.

The first selectman also rejected the idea that the Board of Education should be regarded as something other than a town department, saying the board is part of the town’s overall budget, although approved separately by voters in an annual bifurcated referendum. Saying he was “passionate about it,” the first selectman believes that removing the school board’s identity as a town department would perpetuate a divide that he imagined would have deep implications across the community.

Buzzi and Vice Chair James Gaston — both attorneys — agreed that while the Board of Education is hybrid in that it is vested with statutory roles beyond those articulated in the charter, case law as recent as 2020 has affirmed a municipal board of education is part of the municipality or municipalities it serves. In closing his portion of the meeting, Rosenthal noted the irony of that day, receiving a document from the local school board’s attorney referring to the Board of Education as a town body.

Rosenthal also supported the idea of extending the period of time during which appointments could be made to fill vacancies on boards or commissions from the current 45 days, to 50 - 60 days.

The first selectman additionally suggested modifying charter language that fixes a five-year timeline to the Capital Improvement Plan or CIP — suggesting it not be limited so it can be more flexible over time.