from the Association of Town Finance Committee Handbook:
Town” means town meeting. Section 16, quoted
above, is contained within the “Town meeting”
section of Chapter 39 between two sections on the
town moderator. Most finance committees are
appointed by the town moderator, an official of
the legislative body, town meeting.
Section 16 goes on to read:
“In every town having a committee
appointed under authority of this section,
such committee, or the selectmen if authorized by a by-law of the town, and, in any
town not having such a committee, the
selectmen, shall submit a budget at the
annual town meeting”
In other words, unless no finance committee
exists, or a by-law of the town specifically authorizes the selectmen to submit the budget, the budget shall be submitted by the finance committee.
The Department of Revenue, Division of Local
Services, reinforces this with an “In Our Opinion”
93-310 issued on April 27, 1993 titled -
“Role of Finance Committees and Boards
of Selectmen in Budget Preparation and
Submission to Town Meetings. A board of selectmen in a town with an
elected or appointed finance committee
has no statutory role in the preparation
and submission of the annual budget,
unless it is expressly given a role by bylaw. If not, the finance committee is
responsible for preparing, submitting and
distributing the budget under G.L. Ch. 39
S16 and Ch. 41 S59 and S60.”
This does not mean the finance committee should
have an adversarial relationship with the board of
selectmen or town administrator. In fact, the
finance committee should develop a good working relationship with both. By being open to suggestions and other opinions and working out compromises on key issues, the finance committee can
be more effective in presenting its recommendations to town meeting. When compromises cannot be made, the issues should be narrowed to
provide town meeting with a clear choice.
Town has by-law specifying budget preparation and presentation, passed at town meeting. Perhaps we need to change or adjust by-law to lower advisory committee membership to five and make clearer who may serve.
True, it could be made into a 5 member group modelled after Capital Planning like Carter suggested.
ReplyDeleteWe could have a BOS member, Ex officio member, town employee, and 1 at -large member. Maybe the 5th could be from school committee or something..............lol
Why dont we stop kidding ourselves and get rid of the Selectman, administrator, etc and hire a town manager.
Our present BOS is a follow the employee group. Carter says jump and they all ask "How high".
Our Bos Chairman talks to much, does to little and is a follower. The damn guy doesn't even get that He's a civilian.
Ask Carter how many Capital Planning Meeting did his BOS member (chairman of Capital Planning) make last year. 2 is what I remember Mrs Richards attending. One when she came in a lied to us about Scout Hall( which she was Chairman of) and one other.
enjoy the day
I could not agree with Bob more. As things are going, nothing will change as far as our Town Finances go. The BOS want a good old boy' bunch for advisory, the TA will take free cash to make it through the next year, but what happens if this pandemic lasts two or more years ? Making Carter ex officio, takes away any possibility of a real voice for the voters. People, this is your town, right for your right to have real representation in the Advisory Committee.
DeleteThe state Constitution stipulates that any municipality that has a population under 12,000 cannot adopt "city" form of government and charter; any "town" with less than 6,000 population cannot adopt a representative town meeting charter and form of government. This applies whether or not the municipality has adopted a home rule charter. Other details of city and town government are left to the legislature.
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