May 8, 2008
Charter public hearing brings out more officials
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In the first of two public hearings on the draft charter, on Monday night the Board of Selectmen only heard from town officials.
And much of what was spoken had already been delineated to the Charter Revision Commission in the weeks leading up to its April 4 deadline.
“The Board of Selectmen is continuing to seek input from the public,” First Selectman Evonne Klein told The Darien Times on Tuesday. “Last night there were some very good issues raised and the board will be considering all of them. This is our opportunity as a community to work on revising the charter, so we can put forward, together, the best charter that we can.”
As was the case throughout the end of the charter group’s process, it appears the Board of Finance takes the most issue with provisions in the draft charter.
Martha Banks, finance board vice chairman, who was representing the finance board’s charter subcommittee, explained the board’s concern and said her comments were intended to be constructive in order to preserve the financial integrity of the town.
“This is a conflict of interest that... violates fundamental auditing principles,” Banks said of the provision that requires a selectmen approval for any audits the finance board wishes to initiate.
She added that “speed can be critical to identifying any potential wrong-doing.”
Banks also said that while her board members did not disagree with the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education override provision, they feel the finance board should be allowed an additional 65 days to make a decision if it can’t in the initial 65-day period.
“That made perfect sense,” Riccardo said on Tuesday. “They are the ones that have the fiduciary responsibility and if they need more time, they should have it.”
In the draft charter, the commission authorized the Representative Town Meeting to set a dollar limit for spending in emergency situations. Banks said while she agreed with the limit, the finance board and not the RTM, should set that number. The finance board had previously suggested $50,000.
She also suggested creating an Operations Planning Committee subcommittee that could authorize additional spending if the initial appropriation is used up.
Banks also said the finance board’s characterization in the draft’s executive summary is unjust. It states that “resentment occurs when the Board of Finance, without explanation or justification, cuts or denies funds for recommended initiatives it actually objects to on policy grounds.”
She said that should be stricken from the charter.
“I can assure you that we do not reject proposals without explaining our reasons for doing so,” Banks said. “And our reasons are not based on whether we like the policy. Some people may not be happy with the outcome but to imply that our decisions are arbitrary is false.”
Fred Conze, Planning & Zoning Commission chairman, agreed with Banks that including provisions in the charter based on prior incidents is unwise.
“The Board of Finance, while we may not always agree with their decisions, we need a body that can say ‘No,’” he said. “If we are going to include provisions because of a prior incident, I think that’s a mistake. To get into a structural change in the way we’ve done business, I think is a mistake.”
Seventeen months after beginning the process, Conze still isn’t sure Darien needs charter revision at all.
“I don’t think our town has a big problem,” he said. “I think our town has run well, at least over the years that I’ve been in public service.”
Karen Armour, moderator of the RTM, disagreed with the threshold for referendum. Currently, in order to overturn an RTM decision, at least half of all registered voters must vote. And at least 25 percent of those that vote in the referendum must vote to overturn.
The charter group lowered the referendum threshold to more than 15 percent of the electorate. Only 30 percent of registered voters need to vote and even if 30 percent don’t vote in the referendum, if more than 15 percent of the electorate vote to overturn an RTM decision, it will be rejected.
“To allow a motivated minority,” Armour said, “to overturn considered government action, when the public has already had numerous opportunities to speak, undercuts the time spent by the volunteers Darien needs to govern.
“I believe strongly that our representative government is democratic and a well-tested basis for our system of government. We should support it at its foundation, not undermine it.”
The executive board needed only 31 of the state-mandated 45 days to hold a public hearing. It will have 15 days from next Wednesday’s public hearing to present its recommended changes back to the charter group.
Once the charter group gets the selectmen’s suggestions, it has 30 days to accept any or all of the suggestions and amend the charter, or reject the suggestions altogether. Either way the report would then become final.
If the selectmen choose not to recommend changes at all and instead accept the commission’s initial proposed charter, the report becomes final.
Within 15 days of receiving the final report, the selectmen then will hold a vote to accept or reject the proposed charter. If the selectmen reject the proposal, there is a 45-day period within which a petition for referendum could be presented to the selectmen. In order to do so, the petition would have to include signatures from at least 10 percent of the electorate.
But if the selectmen accept the final proposed charter, it is up to the board to decide when the matter will go to the voters. The selectmen could either submit the report to the town’s voters at a special election or a regular election.
“I was a little disappointed with the number of people that spoke last night,” Selectman Linda Santarella told The Times on Tuesday. “And hopefully there will be a better turnout at our hearing next Wednesday. I have been very quiet about the charter up to this point because I wanted to hear what the public had to say first.”
The selectmen will meet tonight (Thursday) for a work session on the charter. The meeting, which will be held in public, starts at 8 p.m. in room 206 at Town Hall. The selectmen’s second public hearing will be next Wednesday, May 14 in Town Hall.
“We are very interested in what the Board of Selectmen is going to do,” Riccardo said on Tuesday. “We are ready to meet with them at any time if they want to discuss what they heard in the hearings.”
“There’s definitely agreement that the charter needs to be revised,” Klein said on Tuesday. “Now it’s a matter of how are we going to revise the charter and what are the elements of the best charter that we can put forward for the community and for the town.”
E-mail Darien Times reporter Austin Amoroso at aamoroso@darientimes.com.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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