An Exercise in Futility
• 6-4-2010
For the past two nights the budget committee and the citizens of New Gloucester were subjected to long and tedious meetings to resolve the funding of the town assessor's position and to give the board of selectmen their recommendation. I would like to recognize and thank the budget committee for their dedication and hard work on behalf of the citizens of New Gloucester. What the board of selectmen failed to recognize and instruct the budget committee is that in the Municipal Officers Manual, published by the Maine Municipal Association, May 2000 revised edition, there is a section that addresses such a situation.
Before continuing, let me remind everyone of what happened at the town meeting of May 3, 2010. Many citizens of New Gloucester spoke in favor of fully funding the assessor's position with a town employee, and consequently article 2 which contained the funding for the assessor's position was voted down to zero dollars and sent back to the board of selectmen.
Now back to the MMA manual, as I stated above, what the board of selectmen fail to recognize is that in chapter 3 on page 24, Titled: Executive Function of the Municipal Officers, addresses this situation in the second paragraph of this page, it reads, and I quote as written in the manual;
"Under a town meeting form of government, the duty of the municipal officers is to "execute" the will of the people as that will has been expressed legislatively at a town meeting. In a town with a town meeting form of government, therefore, the municipal officers and all other municipal officials (either elected or appointed by the municipal officers) represent the executive branch of the municipal government, of which the municipal officers are the chief executive officers."
They (the budget committee) were given a list of options to choose from, on how to fund and fill the position, but that is not what the will of the people at the town meeting requested. Most of those options were to outsource the position. They were not given the correct instruction and consequently sent back the same option that was in the proposed budget that section 2 was rejected.
At the podium, Steve Libby announced that the board of selectmen had drafted an article to reflect the will of the people in such a way that the position will be fully funded and with a town employee.
The instruction should have been to give a recommendation where to appropriate the money to fund the position, not to give a recommendation on how to fill the position.
Like I said before, there is a great disconnect between the board of selectmen and the citizens of New Gloucester and now it appears that that disconnect goes as far as the committees. If I could find that ruling in the MMA rule book, why couldn't the selectmen find the ruling? It's simple, they need to read the book, and not assume that they know everything.
We need a change in leadership for New Gloucester and on June 8, 2010 if you vote for Jean C. Couturier changes will be coming. My motto is still the same. "Open Government, By The Book"
Respectfully
Jean C. Couturier
