CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE
Minutes - January 5 2010
Members present: Scott Kerry, chair; Nan Balmer, Judy Cannon, John Knight, Stephen Wasby
Others present: Gwen Pelletier, Town Moderator
The meeting, at Eastham Town Hall, began at 5:07PM and ended at 6:32PM.
The minutes of the December 22, 2009, meeting were approved as distributed, 5-0.
Chairman Kerry summarized his contact with the Moderator (who was present); e-mailing to the state representative; keeping the Board of Selectmen in the loop; and contacting the Town Administrator.
The consensus was that at this time, the Committee should not contact Rep. Sarah Peake about the process in the legislature.
Moderator Gwen Pelletier thanked the Committee for its work. She had several specific comments.
- C3-4E: As written, the provision would make all committees, including Charter Review, responsible to the Board of Selectmen.
It was suggested and agreed that adding “Unless otherwise specified” at the beginning of the sentence would resolve the problem.
C3-10 indicated that the Committee was responsible to Town Meeting.
- C4-4A. The transitional language should be relocated above the relettering of sections.
C5-2D. Why omitted?. Judy Cannon answered that we did not wish to carry it over.
C9-4H: A typo (two “any”) should be corrected.
The Moderator also asked if we were planning to have a public hearing.
Chairman Kerry reviewed early correspondence as to the Committee’s task, and indicated we had received no further information. Judy Cannon has been attempting to learn the status of amendments adopted at Town Meeting in 2000. The Town Clerk now says that all those provisions were adopted except the Treasurer/Collector item (as it required a vote). Stephen Wasby suggested asking Rep. Peake about what in fact happened; there was some disagreement over that suggestion. John Knight said –and Nan Balmer agreed– that we do not know what in fact had happened. Wasby argued for readopting some provisions, given the lack of uncertainty. Balmer suggested writing to the Town Clerk. Chairman Kerry will send the Town Clerk a letter, requesting an immediate answer, as to the status of the 2000 amendments.
Chairman Kerry wanted to terminate the meeting at that point, until we had an answer to the letter. Wasby disputed this because time (until the closing of the Warrant) was running short.
There was some discussion of how to present our material to the Selectmen. John Knight wanted a meeting of all members of the Committee with all members of the Board of Selectmen. There was discussion as to whether we should have that meeting before having a final version of
our proposal. Chairman Kerry will talk to the Town Administrator about setting up a meeting with the Board of Selectmen. Knight proposed a meeting of the Committee itself on January 12.
Charter Review Committee - Minutes - January 5 2010 - page 2
Stephen Wasby discussed his proposal, earlier circulated, to group items into several categories (routine, major, FinCom) for presentation at Town Meeting. There was some discussion about whether some of the items were routine or not.
Judy Cannon reported that the minutes of the December 4, 2009, Board of Selectmen meeting misrepresented her presence there. The Board of Selectmen reviewed the work of the Charter Review Committee at that meeting; the Committee had not been notified of that meeting. Judy Cannon was there, for other reasons. She was asked to speak, and told them she was not there as a member of the Committee. The minutes said: “Judy Cannon, Charter Review Committee member, was present to give input to the Board regarding discussion about the Town Charter . . . “ In fact, she did not represent the Charter Review Committee. She will write a letter asking that the Board of Selectmen correct its minutes.
Respectfully submitted,
Stephen L. Wasby, Clerk
| 
