Town of Rutland
Ad Hoc By-Law Committee
Meeting of February 20, 2019
Town Hall Annex
Minutes
-Present: Peter Craine, Ronald Kent, Lynn Turcotte, Karen Greenwood, Norman Anderson, Anita Carlson
Absent: Lindsey Demers
-The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
-Introductions took place and Peter Craine was chosen as chairman and Karen Greenwood, secretary
-Peter discussed the open meeting law. If ½ are involved it’s a quorum and meetings must be posted 48 business hours prior to the meeting.
-The sexual harassment policy and conflict of interest policy must be signed by all, if not done already. Renewal is every 2 years.
-The Town By-laws have not been entirely updated in 70 years. This committee will be responsible for organizing all the By-laws and will work with all the town departments on their respective By-laws and at some future date will meet with the public. We are working only on the general By-laws and not the Zoning ones.
-Our work will not be completed by the annual Town meeting May 11, 2019 at which time the voters will be asked to approve a permanent By-law committee.
-When the Town Clerk approves the changes, with the involvement of the town counsel, they are then submitted to the Attorney General’s (AG) office. The Town Clerk has 30 days and the AG’s office has 90 days to approve the changes.
-The plan is to meet weekly and the meetings will not last more than 2 hours.
-No conclusion has been made as to whether or not to go to a town meeting requesting funds to pay for the town’s attorney fees for consultation.
-The By-laws will be reviewed for spelling and consistency. They will be grouped by chapters, non-zoning regulations and laws and acts. All general laws will be structured the same way. Ex.: Section 1 will state their purpose, Section 2-authority, Section 3-Definations, Section 4-other. At the next meeting we will have a new table of contents with each pertinent By-law grouped together.
-Peter said that with the By-laws, posted on the town website, you will be able to access the Massachusetts General Law (M.G.L.) referenced within a section.
-All changes will be documented.
-We began the review of the General Provisions with page “1”, as hand numbered on the handout. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. without completing.
-The next meeting will be Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at the library from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen R. Greenwood
Secretary
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