Proposed changes to the Town Charter as well as Procedures/Schedule

Joseph Boncore was good enough to respond to my email asking for details.  Here is his email response as the text of the proposed charter changes (including my comments back to Mr. Boncore):

Email:

John

Thank you for your interest in the Ordinance Review Committee’s work. I have attached the proposals the citizens of Winthrop which deals specifically with Charter changes they would like to see effectuated. The Committee is meeting tonight 7 pm at the Harvey Room at Town Hall to deal with how we will undertake these proposals in our three final meetings.

I will recommend we vote on School Committee and Town Manger recommendations at the next meeting (April 12th) and a vote on the Town Council and Council President Recommendations on (April 26th). All other recommendations will be handled with the 26th or the at our final meeting on May 10th.

If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to contact me by email or at my office….. <removed phone #>

Regards,

Joseph Boncore, Chair

The Proposed Changes are:

These are recommendations that have been received by the Ordinance Review Committee regarding the Town of Winthrop’s Charter as of March 22, 2011.    The recommendations pertain in large to Town Council, Council President and School Committee.  There have also been recommendations on the duties of the Town Manager and some other matters.

JohnFMoore:  I would encourage you to not vote on changes to the charter without doing so in a public forum. As an open government strategist/analyst/advocate I can tell you, from experience, that this is the best way to see a town get into trouble, councilors to lose political capital and ultimately office.  I have been circulating the proposed changes on Open Winthrop (https://openwinthropma.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/rules-and-procedures-of-the-winthrop-town-council/) and the feedback I have received in email, on Whispering Winthrop, and elsewhere make it clear that there is a lot of concern about many of these changes.  I am including a few comments below but would love to chat later in the week, if possible, regarding how we make this a more open, transparent, and positive experience for those involved and the citizens of Winthrop. Town Council

1. Council should consist of 6 precinct councilors and a president(Con. Jeannie Maggio)
2. Council reduced to 5 members one being the chairperson (Gus Martucci)
3. Stipend should be a minimum of $5000. /year for each councilor and $7500 for the president with a 3% cost of living raise after each year served. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

JohnFMoore:  This is a concern as the budget is constantly leading to cutbacks to services and staff throughout the town, increasing the stipend of councilors, while okay, and building in the cost of living increase, will raise trust issues/concerns.

1. Under Section 2-4: Compensation and Expenses

Section B:       remove the last line “The Council president and the members for the town council shall not be considered ‘employees’ for the purpose of chapter thirty-two B of the General Laws” (Con. Phil Boncore)

1. The council should be allowed to have a round table discussion at  least 4 times a year without any public comment during those meetings.  The purpose being for informal discussion by the council. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

I would not eliminate the public comment as there is no valid reason to do so.

1. Years of service on the council may be added to a state pension requirement. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. If necessary an elected council member may join the town’s GIC Insurance program. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Any member of the council may be subject of dismissal in event of Violation of any of the Charter Rules.  A hearing by the council and a vote to dismiss or not dismiss will be a prerogative of the council. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Under prohibitions:  A council member who held an office, or other employment under the town, and no longer is a member of the council may return to that office or position immediately without any waiting period. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. A former council member may be considered for employment by the town 6 months after they leave office. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

Council President

1. Terms of office should remain the same for councilors and  president.  (4 years and 2 years) (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Any appointments to town boards or committees should be voted on by the entire council and not just at the discretion of the president. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. The representative to the school committee does not have to be the

President of the council. A representative can be selected by a vote of the council (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Council President serve as Chairman of the Winthrop School Committee (C.P. Turco).

JohnFMoore:  A real issue in terms of keeping power separated between various committees and the council.  Making this change would put too much power into one person’s hands and is a very bad idea.

1. If the council president holds a weekly meeting with the Town Manager, the rest of the council should be made aware of the time and place and may request to be in attendance at these meetings as long as there are not the numbers of councilors that constitute a quorum. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Council President should serve as Chair of the School Committee ( C.P. Turco)

JohnFMoore:  Duplicate of #4 above.  Again, a very bad change, constitutionally, ethically, and so on… School Committee

1. No School Committee Member shall be a town employee (Todd Sacco and C.P. Jeffery Turco)

JohnFMoore:  This needlessly eliminates strong candidates.  What is the motivation behind this proposed change?  I agree with #2 just below.

1. Town Employee serving as member of the School Committee presents no conflict(Frank Deloia and Mary Lou Osbourne)
2. School Superintendent should sit in on contract negotiations (Supr. Joe Lisi)
3. School Committee should be reduced from 7 to 5 members, 4 elected and the Council President (Supr. Joe Lisi and Todd Sacco)
4. School Committee reduced to 5 members one being the chairperson (Gus Martucci)

Town Manager’s Duties

1. Town Manager should have: (1) Veto authority over the financial portion of any collective bargaining agreement agreed to by the school committee; (2) the authority to certify if funds are available to fund a proposed contract (and to reject the same if they are not available).  (C.P. Turco)

JohnFMoore:  Disagree with this one as well.  The town manager should inform the school committee regarding what funds are available, there should not be another step introduced into the collective bargaining process.

1. Section 4-2: Town Manager, Powers and Duties:

(b) The town council may, by a vote of atleast six of its members, reject the proposed appointment of any department head, in which case the town manager shall submit another name for appointment to the office.  (Con. Boncore) Currently reads : “reject proposed appointment of police or fire chief”

1. Handicap Access Commission be appointed by the Town Manager (as reflected in M.G.L) rather than the Council President  (Lee Dzedulodis)

Other

1. Recall Provision:         Recall provision for any elected office holder.  Specifically, supporting a recall should be required to obtain the signatures of registered voters equal to the number of votes cast in the last election plus one for the official sought to be recalled.    For Example , if candidate X received 1,000 votes in the prior election then 1,001 signatures of registered voters would be required to trigger a recall election.  Once the requisite number of signatures is certified, the proponents of the recall should be required to post a bond in an amount necessary to cover the cost of the recall election.   If the recall is successful the bond is refunded not paid.  IF the recall is not successful, the Town of Winthrop could act against the bond in order to be held harmless for the cost of the recall election.  These limitations would ensure that recall elections would not result from very tough decision made by municipal leaders but would be used in truly rare circumstances. (C.P Turco)

JohnFMoore:  This is prohibitive and reduces the likelihood that a poorly performing council member could be recalled.  It should simply be a fixed number of signatures, 500 – 1000 maximum.  Anything else would be out of line.

1. The Town Clerk shall be an elected position and not one Appointed by the council.           (Con. Jeannie Maggio)
2. An auditor shall be hired to do an audit a minimum of twice a year. This position shall    be separate from any town financial office or employee. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)
3. The Clerk of the Council shall be at the minimum, a part-time position, so that the Public will have a place to come to or call for appointments, information, etc.  The Clerk will be available to assist any councilor with preparing any papers, mailing, or other type of correspondence.   An office shall be maintained for this purpose with designated office times. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. The Board of the Winthrop Housing Authority shall be required to appear before the council at least once a year with a report that includes both the management and financials of the authority.  Since the public elects 4 of their members, this report should be presented in a public forum. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Under section 9-10, Limitation on Office Holding, any employee who also holds a position on any board, may not use any of their town-employed hours to do the work of the board. (Con. Jeannie Maggio)

1. Handicap Access Commission be renamed to Commission on Disability (Lee Dzedulodis)