Newtown’s Town Meeting Survives Charter Commission Panel Review

By Steve Bigham

Newtown’s traditional town meeting form of government will live on – at least in part – for a few more years. That is the consensus of the Charter Revision Commission, which last week agreed that the town meeting still had a place in Newtown’s government.

Some town officials had suggested that the town meeting be eliminated. Some felt it had long worn out its usefulness, particularly since the meetings, often called to decide on major expenditures, no longer get the big crowds that they once did.

“A very small group of people can spend some very serious dollars. I’m very concerned that this town is being influenced by special interest groups,” Legislative Council Chairman Pierre Rochman noted last year.

But the charter panel still sees value in the town meeting.

“We discussed the town meeting from two perspectives – the budget process and special appropriations,” noted Charter Revision Chairman Bill Sheluck. “From the budget standpoint, we were pretty much in agreement that we would keep the present approval process in place, that is, a town meeting would still be held following a defeated budget. It makes for a more efficient process and eliminates the possibility of too many referendums. Having too many referendums is a divisive process.”

Currently, the town votes on a proposed town budget at a referendum. However, if the budget is defeated, a revised budget is then presented at a town meeting for approval. This saves the town money by not having to set up the voting machines a second time.

There is, however, one scenario where the charter panel might eliminate the town meeting from the budget process.

“The only change we might make is if we are able to add advisory questions to the ballot. Then we would likely add a second referendum before going to a town meeting,” Mr Sheluck said. “The reason is there might be some information obtained from the answers of the advisory questions which would enable the Legislative Council to make a number of different decisions with respect to the budget.”

The charter panel is waiting to hear from voting machine operator Bob Connor, to determine if there is a mechanism for adding advisory questions and to have the “no” votes segregated from the “yes” votes.

With respect to special appropriations, the commission reached consensus on keeping the town meeting for appropriations up to $2 million and exceeding the half million that the council is authorized to spend.

“Anything above two million would go to referendum,” Mr Sheluck said. “With special appropriations, we just felt that larger amounts should be dealt directly with a referendum as opposed to having to petition to a referendum.”

In other Charter Revision Commission news, the board agreed to amend the charter to give the council flexibility in utilizing budget surpluses for reserve funds instead of having them automatically added to revenue in the following fiscal year’s budget.

“We’ve decided to eliminate that requirement. This would enable the council to generate a reserve fund up to a desirable level of five percent,” Mr Sheluck said. “We’re not mandating five percent. Finance Director Ben Spragg said the rating agency likes to see a five percent reserve fund in towns and he indicated that given the flexibility, it’s likely the council would develop a reserve fund up to the level of five percent. With the current budget, that would be about $3.5 million.

Finally, the charter panel last week began work on eliminating any reference in the charter to specific positions/jobs with respect to their removal for “cause” or “without cause.” It has been requested to amend the charter to have all town employees treated in the same manner, obviously, taking into account those who are part of the collective bargaining agreement.

The Charter Revision Commission has entered its final month of deliberations on the town charter and is expected to take a final vote on some of its recommendations sometime in early April. After a vote, the commission will schedule a public hearing. From there, the board will reconvene for one final vote before submitting its final report to the Legislative Council, which can approve or reject different aspects of the report.

Any proposed changes to the charter will be voted on at the municipal elections next November.

“We would encourage people to look at recommendations coming from the commission with an open mind and a view toward the future,” Mr Sheluck said. “Look carefully at the reasons why we are suggesting changes and base their judgements on that reasoning.”

The Charter Revision Commission members are Ken Bigham, George Caracciolo, Alvah Cramer, Michael Floros, Joseph Hemingway, Ed Kelleher, Kevin O’Neil, Jack Rosenthal, Jane Sharpe, Bill Sheluck, and Harry Waterbury. Owen Carney stepped down last week as he makes his bid for first selectman.