Meeting, October 10, 2002

 

Present:  Paul Connolly, Raphael Herz, and Linda Wollschlager

Absent:  Phil Verzani and Jeff Phillips

 

The meeting was called to order by the chair at 7:15 PM in the Retirement Board Conference Room, Third Floor, Town Hall. The notice for the meeting had been sent to the Town Clerk for posting on September 30; the agenda had been sent at the same time.

 

Minutes of the September 23 meeting were approved as written.

 

The committee members agreed that the committee had never voted to recommend that Town Meeting vote to approve amendments to the Charter and By-Laws as described in Articles 24 through 61 on the warrant. Previous votes had been to place the articles on the warrant or, earlier, to place proposed changes on the agenda for the public hearing.

 

Consequently, the committee unanimously agreed (3-0) to recommend that Town Meeting vote to approve amendments to the Charter and By-Laws for the subset of Articles 24 through 61 that have already received a positive recommendation from the Finance Committee. These articles are the following: 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 49, 53, 54, 55, 57, and 61.

 

The committee discussed a number of the other articles and unanimously agreed (3-0) to make the motion at Town Meeting that Town Meeting vote to approve amendments to the Charter and By-Laws for these articles. These articles are the following: 32, 43, 46, and 50. An amendment was also approved under Article 46: "except when the owner lives on the premises".

 

For a number of other articles, the committee decided that more information had to be obtained from the Town Administrator, the Police Chief, the Director of Public Works, the Director of Public Health, and the Director of Assessing. Mr. Connolly and Mr. Herz will obtain the information. The committee agreed that Mr. Herz, in the light of the information obtained, would decide whether or not to ask Town Meeting to approve amendments to the Charter and By-Laws for these articles. These articles are the following: 45, 48, 51, 52, and 59.

 

The committee decided that referral was best for Articles 47 and 56; no action was proper for Article 58. The committee adjourned before reaching a decision on Article 31 and amendments. The committee never took up Article 60.

 

The meeting adjourned at 10:15 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Paul E. Connolly