Ogunquit News
Proposed charter changes would expand Board of Selectmen, change fiscal year
By Melissa Wood
OGUNQUIT - Members of the Board of Selectmen reviewed proposed changes to the town charter that include expanding the size of the board to seven members, changing the tax year to a fiscal year and modifying the tax schedule so residents make multiple payments instead of one.Those and other issues were discussed at the Charter Review Commission's meeting on Wednesday, April 18, at which the commission invited the selectmen for their reaction and input on those items.
During the meeting a good back-and-forth discussion about the pros and cons of expanding the Board of Selectmen took place, said Charter Review Commission Chairman Herbert Hoffman, and the consensus was let the people decide.
Among the pros, said Hoffman, was that more members would mean more diversity and openness among the board members.
"There would be less opportunity for a block to control the board's decisions," said Hoffman. "It's more difficult to get a majority with four votes."
Hoffman added that it would also present the opportunity to distribute the workload more broadly with members able to take on specific items and report back to the rest of the board.
But some at the meeting brought up that the drawback to having more members is finding those members.
"The con, of course, is can you get enough people to stand for office?" noted Hoffman, who said that if the item goes to the voters, the earliest it could be voted on would be next April when it could be placed on the warrant for the town meeting. "I had a sense there was some consensus among the commission members and the select board to let the people decide."
Two other big issues discussed with selectmen were proposals to change the tax year to a fiscal year and to change the tax payment schedule so that residents would make multiple payments per year instead of one big payment.
"I think there were a lot of people present who felt it would be a good idea to change the tax year," said Hoffman, who said the issue of multiple payments would be the selectmen's decision.
Selectmen Vice Chairman John Abbott had suggested that they look into ways to make the transition to multiple payments have less of an impact on town residents. Town Manager Phil Clark, who was just back to work this week part-time, accepted the task of doing some research into the transition.
"Clearly, if we go to a quarter payment it would save the town money in terms of the interest," said Hoffman.
Hoffman said the Charter Review Commission, which is tasked with the reviewing the town charter and making suggested changes to the Board of Selectmen for any updates, covered a lot of ground on Wednesday night. Along with the items discussed with the selectmen, the commission also agreed to add the word "appearance" for when a conflict of interest has to be addressed in a board or committee's vote.
Hoffman said a hypothetical example would be if he were the manager of a peewee football team in town and a member of the Budget Committee, and the team applied for a $5,000 sponsorship from the town. He said in that case it may be no conflict of interest, but since there is an appearance of one, it should be addressed.
"I can make the argument that there's no personal gain for me," said Hoffman.
The rest of the members of the Budget Review Committee could then either accept that explanation or ask him to recuse himself from the vote. Hoffman said the appearance of a conflict of interest rarely gets addressed publicly.
"It's an issue of public trust," said Hoffman who added that, as expected, many people play multiple roles within the town.
Another change that the Charter Review Commission is going to recommend is to take out language that states a resident who has been "convicted of a felony or an offense involving moral turpitude" forfeits his or her position in town office. Hoffman said the commission felt the phrase "moral turpitude" was too ambiguous and so instead they are suggesting changing the language to say if a member is sentenced in excess of 30 days while serving on a town board, that member would forfeit their office.
"We're of one mind to eliminate that criteria," said Hoffman.
A resident also suggested to the commission that the charter be revised so that town hall is open on Saturday mornings for residents who are unable to make it into the office during the Monday through Friday business hours. Hoffman said the issue is not addressed in the charter so could not be changed by the commission. However, he said, they passed the recommendation on to the town manager who would be making that call.
The Charter Review Commission's next meeting is on Wednesday, May 2.
Neither the town manager nor other Charter Commission or Board of Selectmen members could be reached for comment on the commission's efforts as of press time.
