HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-11-04 ad Hoc Charter Review Committee Minutes Town of Reading
Meeting Minutes
Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
ad Hoc Charter Review Committee
Date: 2013-11-04 Time: 7:30p
Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Conference Room
Address: 16 Lowell Street
Purpose: Review Reading Town Charter Session: General Session
Attendees: Members - Present:
Precinct 2: Steve Crook, Alan Foulds
Precinct 3: Paul Sylvester
Precinct 4: Glen Hartzel, Richard Coco
Precinct 5: Phil Pacino
Precinct 7: Carolyn Whiting, Jeff Struble, John Segalla, John Carpenter
Precinct 8: Bill Brown
Members - Not Present:
Precinct 3: Margaret Russell
Precinct 4: David Mancuso
Precinct 5: Janice Jones, Phil Rushworth
Others Present:
Selectman: Dan Ensminger
Town Clerk: Laura Gemme
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Richard Coco, Clerk
Topics of Discussion:
Meeting was called to order by the Chair, Town Meeting Moderator Alan Foulds at 7:30 pm.
The minutes from the previous meetings of the Committee were read and approved as
follows:
Motion made by Phil Pacino, seconded by John Segalla to accept and approve the minutes of
the September 16, 2013 meeting.
The Motion passed: 6/0/2 with two abstentions by members who were not present at this
meeting.
Motion by Phil Pacino, seconded by John Segalla to accept and approve the minutes of the
October 7, 2013 meeting, with the correction of changing Steve Clerk to Steve Crook
The motion passed: 5/0/3 with three abstentions by members who were not present at this
meeting.
Motion by Phil Pacino, seconded by John Segalla to accept and approve the minutes of the
October 21, 2013 meeting with the correction that in Article 2-11, change "will" to "shall" in
the last sentence which referred to the Open Meeting Laws. The motion passed: 6/0/2 with
two abstentions by members who were not at this meeting.
There followed a discussion by the committee related to the schedule for future meetings. It
was decided that the business of fall Town Meeting would likely be completed by November
Page 1 1
18th and that date was set for the next meeting. Further, the meeting on December 2 will
be an "Open Meeting" to which all Town of Reading Boards, Committees and Commissions
will be invited to attend and bring their thought on possible revisions to the Reading
Charter. Because of the projected number of attendees to this meeting, the Town Clerk was
asked to reserve the Pleasant Street Senior Center to accommodate the meeting.
Further, it was decided that an agenda for the December 2nd meeting be developed by the
Committee Chair, Alan Foulds and sent to the Town Boards, Committees and Commissions
outlining the process being followed by the Reading Charter Review Committee and asking
for written inputs to the process.
The committee also decided to postpone any minor "housekeeping" type changes or
corrections to the Charter until that time when a review of all of the Articles has been
completed.
Continuing review of Articles
Article 2-13. Add "(2)" after the word "two" in sentence (a). A Motion was made by Richard
Coco, second by Phil Pacino to approve this change. The motion passed unanimously.
Article 2-13. Add in sentence (b) Boards, Committees or Commissions after the word
"Town". A Motion was made by Steve Crook, second by Carolyn Whiting to approve this
change. The motion passed 7/2.
Article 2-13. Replace the "," with ";" punctuation between 2-14 and (d) and before (e) in
the second sentence. Motion to approve this change was made by Steve Crook, second by
Carolyn Whiting, and passed unanimously.
Article 2-14. No changes were proposed to this section.
Article 2-15. Since "Computation of Time" as defined in Section 8-5 is relevant to this
section, it was decided by the committee to return to the issue of time computation in this
Article until after a review of Article 8 has been completed.
Article 2-15. Add "2/3" after the words "two-thirds" in sentence (d), and add punctuation
to separate the parts of the first sentence of this section.
The motion by Richard Coco, second by Steve Crook, passed unanimously.
Article 2-15(a). Add (3%) after the words three-percent in the first sentence of this section.
The motion made by Steve Crook, second by Carolyn Whiting, passed unanimously.
Article 3-1 General Provisions
A motion by Bill Brown, second by John Carpenter to add a new paragraph defining the
Powers of all Officers, Boards and Commissions under this section (Article 3-1) as defined
by the Constitution and/or the General Laws of the Commonwealth and the Bylaws of
Reading and eliminate the repeat of this definition of powers under each sub-section of this
Article. For example:
Article 3.2 Board of Selectmen
In the second paragraph, Keep the first sentence, but delete the second sentence.
Article 3.3 School Committee
Delete first sentence of second paragraph.
Article 3.4 Delete the third paragraph.
The intent of the main motion was to state in the initial paragraph of Article 3.1 all the
rules, regulations and duties incumbent on the various Boards and Committees and
Page 1 2
eliminate duplication. Following a general discussion of these proposed revisions, the motion
failed to pass 3/7/0.
Article 3.1 General Provisions
Add "Commissions" after Representative in the first paragraph, first sentence.
The motion made by Phil Pacino, second by Steve Crook, passed unanimously.
Article 3.2 Board of Selectmen
In the third paragraph, delete the complete sentence starting with the words "Without
limiting the foregoing---".
Motion was made by Steve Crook, second by Phil Pacino. The motion passed unanimously.
Article 3-3 School Committee in subsection (a), delete the typo error of duplicate words
"and may".
Motion made by Richard Coco, second by Carolyn Whiting. The motion passed unanimously.
Article 3-3 School Committee in subsection (a), will become The School Committee shall
appoint a Superintendent of Schools and shall fix his compensation, define his duties and
terms of employment.
Motion made by Phil Pacino, second by Jeff Struble. The motion passed unanimously.
Article 3-4 Board of Library Trustees
There was discussion on the particular duties of the Library Trustees especially in regard to
expenditure of funds for choosing and purchasing books and other materials for the library.
The Charter Review Committee decided to ask the Library Trustees to attend the "Open
Meeting" scheduled for December 2 at which time their role could be clarified.
Article 3-4 Board of Library Trustees add after Town Manager in the second paragraph "or
designee."
Motion made by Bill Brown, second by Jeff Struble. The motion passed unanimously.
Then next scheduled meeting of the Charter Review Committee is for November 18th unless
Town Meeting is still in session on that date; the "Open Meeting" is scheduled for December
2nd The Town Clerk was asked to contact and notify all Reading Boards, Committees and
Commissions of is meeting by letter or electronically and ask that they submit written
comments/concerns, if any, to the Charter Review Committee ahead of that date.
On a motion by Phil Pacino, second by Bill Brown, the Committee unanimously voted to
adjourn at 9:25 pm.
Page 1 3