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Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes

Hingham Town Hall
Present:  Committee Members Seelen, Manning, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Ellison, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, Lauter, MacCune, Marwill, O’Meara
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• Call to order

Chair Jerry Seelen called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 7:33 PM.

• Approval of Minutes for April 26th

The Committee reviewed and unanimously approved the minutes for April 26th 2010.

• Financial Policy

The Chair reviewed proposed changes to the current Town Financial Policy, which was last updated in 1993.  Jerry explained that the proposed changes addressed all but three of the fifteen budget-process and financial-policy issues summarized and documented in June 2009 for further consideration by the Committee during FY10.
With input from Town Finance Director Ted Alexiades, the Committee focused particularly on setting an appropriate Fund Balance objective.  While no final decisions were taken, Ted’s recommendation was to target a Fund Balance representing 14%-18% of Total Annual Expenditures.
Discussion will continue at the Committee’s June 22nd meeting.  In the interim, additional suggested changes should be sent to Jerry.

• Election of Officers

The Nominating Committee—consisting of the Chair, Dave Ellison, and Dick Innis—presented the following FY11 officer nominees for the Committee’s consideration:

• Chair – Jack Manning
• Vice Chair – Jon Asher
• Secretary – Greg MacCune

The Nominating Committee indicated that all Committee members had been considered for each position and that the process of previous years had been followed. 

However, several members expressed concern about the absence of outreach to each member by the Nominating Committee, particularly in a year when the Advisory Committee as a whole had worked hard to make its deliberations and decision-making process more open and accessible.

The Vice Chair nominee responded to Committee members’ questions regarding his perception of the job.
In response to remarks by some members about being presented with a fait accompli, the Chair asked if any members desired to propose additional nominees; none were forthcoming.

The Committee voted to approve the slate of nominees.  Amy Farrell asked to be recorded as voting ‘Nay.’  Karen Johnson, Mary Jane O’Meara, Dennis Friedman, Greg MacCune, and Jon Asher abstained.

The recommendation was made that the Committee discuss the nominating process in advance of nominations for FY12.

• Reserve Fund Transfers

The following Reserve Fund Transfers were reviewed and approved by the Committee.

The following Intra-Department Transfer Requests were reviewed and approved by the Committee.

The Chair advised that Town department heads have been encouraged to submit any remaining Reserve Fund Transfer requests to the Board of Selectmen prior to the Committee’s next meeting on June 22nd.

• League of Women Voters – Town Meeting Study

League of Women Voters Chair Kate Boland, accompanied by LWV members Julie Strehle and Liza O’Reilly, presented an initial series of recommendations to enhance both voter education leading up to Town Meeting and the efficient conduct of Town Meeting.
While some informative web-based and paper guides have been created and implemented, the League recommends:

• Promulgating a year-long calendar listing Article hearing dates to encourage collaboration and understanding
• Scheduling a ‘Town Meeting Coordination Meeting’ in December of each year for Moderator, Selectmen, Town Boards, Town Staff, and interested citizens
• Closing the Warrant on January 20th with more finality, and posting it electronically on the Town web-site not later than January 30th

On behalf of the Committee, the Chair signaled support by suggesting the possible assignment of a liaison to the League.  However, concern was expressed about the Committee’s ability to publish in September a detailed schedule of hearing dates given that new Articles may be introduced as late as January 20th.  This scheduling difficulty is compounded by the scheduling of Planning Board hearings for zoning articles and Community Preservation Committee hearings for funding projects prior to their availability for review by the Advisory Committee.

The Committee recommended that the League’s proposals be studied further over the course of the next few months, and that any proposed policy changes in the conduct of Town Meeting also be reviewed by the Town Moderator.

Kate indicated that further research would occur as to how other similar towns facilitated voter education and Town Meeting conduct.  Additional questions or suggestions should be conveyed for the League’s attention at kateboland@comcast.net. 

• AdCom Web Site Updates and Additions
• The Chair indicated that the annual milestone schedule on the Committee’s web page should be updated when target dates are finalized
• Chairman-elect Jack Manning offered for further consideration the inclusion of Committee member bio’s on the Committee’s web page in order to make members more approachable
• General Business
• In the spirit of enabling easier interaction with the Committee, it was recommended that:
• a bulletin board with each meeting’s agenda be placed outside the posted meeting room
• extra copies of each meeting’s handouts be made available for citizen use
• a table be provided for use by presenters
• The Chair signaled that the Committee should formulate a response regarding the Board of Selectmen’s June 3rd memorandum encouraging electronic recording and/or live broadcasting of Town boards’ meetings
• The Chair, Vice Chair, Town Administrator, and Ted are continuing to work on acquiring access to intern support for Committee assistance
• The Chair encouraged those members who have not completed ethics training to do so.  All members were encouraged to attend one of the two Municipal Forum sessions on June 15th ( @ 4:00PM and 7:00PM) to receive instruction by Town Counsel Jim Toomey on the revised Open Meeting Law
• Laura Marwill provided the Committee with a copy of a State Ethics Commission letter dated April 21st 2010 indicating receipt by the Commission of information which potentially raised concerns under the State’s conflict of interest law regarding her position as the Committee’s liaison to the Library Board of Trustees (of which her mother, Edna English, is a member). 

Laura also provided members with a copy of the disclosure letter which she had first sent to the appointing authority, the Town Moderator, on September 26th, 2009, following her liaison assignment.  This disclosure letter fulfilled the requirements of M.G.L. c. 268A Section 23(b)(3) regarding the conduct of public officials and employees.

A copy of the State Ethics Commission letter and a second copy of the disclosure letter were sent by Laura to the Town Moderator on May 27th, 2010, and the matter is believed to be satisfactorily addressed and closed. 

It was suggested that, in future, disclosure letters also be filed with the Town Clerk with the objective of addressing future citizen concerns more expeditiously. 

• Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary