Town Attorney Finds A Place

For The Finance Board

By Steve Bigham

More than a week after the election, town officials are still trying to figure out how last week’s charter revision vote will change Newtown’s government.

On Wednesday, however, Town Attorney David Grogins announced he had successfully managed to incorporate the approved changes into the charter.

Last week, voters approved the creation of a Board of Finance to assist the Legislative Council in handling the town’s financial matters. What was not 100 percent clear, however, is how the Board of Finance will fulfill its new responsibilities in conjunction with the council.

Confusion arose after voters approved only two of the five charter revision questions on the November 6 ballot. That has forced town officials to incorporate some of the new in with the old. For example, certain responsibilities and powers previously held by the council may now transfer over to the Board of Finance, although the mixed results from last week’s vote leave that fact in question. The charter vote, which First Selectman Herb Rosenthal last week labeled a “fiasco,” is now in the hands of Town Attorney David Grogins.

“The town attorney is the one who ultimately interprets it, and then he works with the town clerk, and then they have to send a revised charter to the secretary of state by the first week in December,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Grogins put a positive spin on what many feel has turned into a legal mess.

“I think it will work. It may not be substantively the most efficient or best way to go, but that will be subject to discussion at a later date. There will be a charter revision commission at a future date.”

There has been some concern over how to fit the Board of Finance into the old budget timeline, although Finance Director Ben Spragg this week said he felt it could be done. Mr Grogins agreed.

“The hardest couple of things to deal with were the dates of the budget process. We had to compress some of the items into the timeframes that are set forth in the present charter,” he explained. It is most important that the Board of Finance has the maximum amount of budget time since it will be doing essentially what the finance subcommittee of the Legislative Council had previously done. I think the council’s role is more of a review role.”

Charter Revision Commission Chairman Bill Sheluck said it is imperative that each board has enough time to deal with the budget.

“What’s important is that the budget process that the voters approved in the election takes precedent over the dates. The intention of the Charter Revision Commission in formulating the budget process was that it be a deliberative process and it seems to me that you can’t take away the time that was allotted to each body without changing the intent of the recommendation,” he said.

Last week, voters rejected a plan to eliminate the Board of Selectmen and to give the first selectman veto power over the annual town budget. It also rejected a plan that would have taken away the council’s power to initiate special appropriations.

Mr Sheluck said there should be little doubt as to what the results of the vote mean. The creation of the Board of Finance was approved and with that comes the budget process from which it will work, he said.

Critics argue that last week’s vote simply created another layer of government and that the overall budget timeline has been compressed, providing boards and commissions with less time to get the job done.

After several months of work, the Charter Revision Commission presented its proposed changes to the Legislative Council this past summer. The changes were extensive, and many on the council opposed them from the start, pointing out that a board of finance would be a change from the current system, which they felt was working just fine. The charter board argued that a board of finance was essential to a more effective government as it would provide better checks and balances and give the town better long-term financial planning.

After weeks of deliberation, the council eventually voted against creating a board of finance. The charter panel remained committed to the idea, however. The Board of Finance was clearly the centerpiece of its overall plan. In August, the 11-member board successfully petitioned to have the Board of Finance question placed onto the November 6 ballot. The victory led attorneys to create a way to separate the questions on the ballot, and they came up with a five-question format, which went before the voters last week.

Further problems arose after it was discovered that the Charter Revision Commission failed to put an “effective date” on its proposal. That meant that any approved changes to the charter would need to go into effect 30 days after the vote, not two years after as had been the board’s original intent.

The oversight prompted several town officials and candidates to recommend a “no” vote on the five questions and an immediate recommissioning of the Charter Revision Commission to fix the omission. Undaunted, the charter panel pushed forward, urging residents to vote in favor of the plan. The result on Election Day was a split decision.

 “My reaction was that whoever thought it should have been presented as five questions was wrong. It was a crucial mistake,” Mr Spragg said.

This week, Legislative Council Chairman Don Studley pledged to work hard to ensure cooperation between the council and the new Board of Finance.

“We will be sharing a responsibility that the council has solely had for the past 25 years, mainly the financial management of the government and we need to make sure we implement that as seamlessly as possible,” Mr Studley said.