Minutes
Town Town of Wellfleet
Charter Review Committee
Meeting Minutes
March 9, 2018
Wellfleet Town Hall, Basement Meeting Room
Present: Harry Terkanian, Barbara Cary, Denny O’Connell, Paul Cullity, Roger Putnam, Helen Miranda Wilson
Regrets: Deborah Freeman
Attendees: Dan Silverman, Jude Ahern
The meeting of the Charter Review Committee (“CRC”) was called to order at 2:00 p.m. by Vice Chair Denny O’Connell.
It was moved, seconded and VOTED 6-0 to accept the Minutes of the CRC meeting of February 20, 2018 as amended.
Discussion
The CRC had received comments and three proposed changes via e-mail from Town Counsel in response to its review of the Charter draft. The proposed changes were discussed and voted upon as follows:
It was moved, seconded and VOTED 6-0 to make the following change to Charter Section 3-5-3: the reference to MGL Chapter 48, Sections 42 be changed to “MGL Chapter 48, Sections 42, 43 and 44.”, and in section 3-6-1, the subsection referring to the Fire Chief is corrected to read “(e)”.
It was moved, seconded and VOTED 6-0 to make the following change to Charter Section 4-1-3: the words “this Charter” are deleted and replaced with “Chapter 4 of this Charter”.
It was moved, seconded and VOTED 6-0 to make the following change to Charter Section 6-5-5, in line 5, the words “not less than forty-five nor more than sixty days” are deleted, and replaced with “not less than sixty nor more than eighty days”.
Jude Ahern, who was present at this CRC meeting, had submitted eight e-mails to the CRC with broad questions and comments, which Harry Terkanian had forwarded to each member of the Committee. Ms. Ahern was invited to address the CRC, focusing on specific comments and reasons for her recommendations. Discussion followed concerning the CRC’s authority and scope of revisions to the draft, notice of the changes and opportunity for comment, explanation of the process and structure of the revisions.
The CRC then returned to the question of whether an individual to be managed by the Town Administrator should be hired by the Town Administrator, or whether it is more effective for the Shellfish Constable, in particular, to be hired by the Select Board, which arguably is in an better position to collect information about a candidate from a wider base.
As previously noted in discussion and reflected in the Minutes of the CRC, the sensitive nature of this change is understood, as well as the potential delay in acceptance of the charter revision it could cause.
It was moved, seconded and VOTED 6-0 that the following amendment to revised Charter section 5-4-2 (d) could be offered at Town Meeting if necessary:
“I move to strike from the proposed charter Section 5-4-2(d) which reads “a Shellfish Constable”, to re-letter the subsections of 5-4-2 following subsection (d), and to insert into Section 3-6-1 (d) “a Shellfish Constable” in place of the current text.”
Note that the clause “to re-letter the subsections of 5-4-2 following subsection (d)” was the subject of a second 6-0 VOTE, which had been moved and seconded.
Closing discussion covered planned presentation of the Charter changes at Town Meeting, specifically Deborah Freeman, as Chair, to make the motion, and Harry Terkanian to provide further briefing. Helen will present the proposed motion at the next Selectman’s Meeting (Tuesday March 13, 2018), noting that the CRC will offer the motion, although not recommend it.
The next meeting of the CRC is scheduled for Friday, April 13, 2018, at 2 pm in the Basement Meeting Room of the Town Hall.
The CRC Meeting was adjourned by consensus at 3:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Cary
Clerk
Public Documents
The following eight e-mails from Jude Ahern:
February 23, 2018
March 5, 2018:
1:17 a.m.
1:21 a.m.
4:04 a.m.
4:43 a.m.
8:48 a.m.
10:58 a.m.
March 6, 2018
E-mail dated from Brian Reilly, P-K law to Brian Carlson, dated February 26, 2018