CHARTER REVISION COMMITTEE
REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
MARCH 14, 2005
I. Call Meeting To Order
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 14, 2005 at the East Windsor Town Hall.
II. Attendance: Richard LeBorious, Chairman, Joseph Roberts, Peter Nevers, Kathy Bilodeau, Cliff Nelson
Unable to Attend: Ralph Saunders, Edward Filipone, John Parda, Noreen Farmer
III. Added Agenda Items – None
IV. Public Participation – None
Gil Lowell, Reservoir Road – He suggested a change in the Charter that allows voting for the annual budget in two segments, the school budget and the town budget.
Elizabeth Burns – Ms. Burns took a moment to explain to the Commission that the regular meetings will be filmed and shown on the Cox Cable Television public access channel. She introduced her crew, Scott Riach and James Cloutier.
V. Written Communications
The following were distributed for the Commission’s information and Mr. Nelson read them out loud for the public.
· Board of Ethics, Dale Nelson e-mail dated March 14, 2005
· Laurie Hestad email dated March 4, 2005
VI. Previous Minutes
The minutes of February 14, 2005 will be voted on at the next meeting – lack of quorum.
VII. Board and Commission Input on suggested Charter Revision(s)
Water Pollution Control Authority: Paul Anderson and Tom Davis came before the Commission to discuss their suggested revisions. By ordinance they were established 9/15/66. The current charter – Section 7.15 and the ordinance conflict. The ordinance states terms are five years and expire October 1, each year. They suggest the ordinance be changed to four years. Section 7.17 discusses dissolution at Town Meeting – they would like “except WPCA” or “except as set for in C.G.S. § 7-246” added to this section.
The Commission thanked them for their time and asked for the suggested revisions in writing.
WAREHOUSE POINT LIBRARY – Vincent Bologna came before the Commission to explain there is an ad hoc committee working with the idea of making the Library Association a town agency. He was before the Commission looking for a time table as to when he would need to get the information to the Charter Revision Commission for this potential agency to be included in the revised Charter. The Chairman advised the draft report with the revision is slated to be completed January, 2006.
The Commission would like a memo to go out to Town Boards and Commissions reminding them of tonight’s meeting and asking for input from all on charter revision changes, if any, by way of attendance at a future meeting or a memo to the Commission. If no changes are deemed necessary, the Commission would be interested in receiving that information in writing.
VIII. Continued Review Of Charter And Discussion Of Potential Revision(s)
· Status of Student interest for input on charter revision.
Commission member Noreen Farmer had sent an email to members outlining she had not heard back from the school, it looks like there will be no active participation by the students.
· Status of date for local town manager discussions – March 24, 2005.
On March 24, barring any emergencies, Bonnie Therrien of Wethersfield and Bill Smith of Granby will come before the Commission to discuss town manager government. There may be one additional guest, that is unconfirmed at this point.
The Commission members noted that this discussion is for information gathering purposes only and they are not advocating one form of government or the other at this point.
· Status of pubic forum regarding education of forms of town government
Professor Moran, a Political Science Professor from Central Connecticut State College has tentatively agreed to appear at a public forum on May 9. Professor Moran teaches state and local government and has consulted with communities on charter revisions.
The Commission will advertise this on the cable t.v. access channel . Funds for advertising, how to advertise and printing costs are being investigated by various commission members.
IX. Adjournment
MOTION: To adjourn at 8:10 p.m.
Made by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Ms. Bilodeau.
ALL MEMBERS IN FAVOR. MOTION CARRIED.
Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia D. Croxford
Recording Secretary
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