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Advisory Committee
July 14, 2009 Meeting Minutes

Hingham Town Hall
Present: Committee Members Seelen, Manning, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Ellison, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, MacCune, Marwill, Mooradian, O’Meara
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1. Call to order
Chair Jerry Seelen called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 8:35 PM.

2. Approval of minutes for July 8, 2009
The Committee reviewed and approved minutes from the meeting on July 8th 2009.

3. Special Town Meeting Warrant Article Discussion
For the benefit of the Committee, the Chair reported on the voting earlier that evening by the Board of Selectmen regarding Special Town Meeting Warrant Articles 1a., 1b., and 2.:

• 2-1 in favor of Article 1a. to name the newly-constructed elementary school ‘East School’ and the library wing for Dorothy H. Galo
• 2-1 in favor of Article 1b. to prohibit the School Committee from naming any school building, property, or facility except with prior Town Meeting approval or in accordance with a naming policy to be adopted by Town Meeting
• 3-0 for No Action on Article 2. regarding payment of the Special Town Meeting cost from School Department Account 300.
  

The Chair indicated that the evening’s session was primarily for Committee discussion, and it was possible there would be no vote taken.

The Chair also recapped the subject of Committee-member recusal, observing that the decision to recuse is not a legal requirement but is, rather, a personal decision. Lizzie Eldredge, Dan Dwyer, and Jon Asher were given the opportunity to reconsider their previous recusal decisions. Lizzie explained her rationale for deciding no longer to recuse herself; Dan and Jon indicated that the reasons for their previous recusals were still applicable.

The Committee unanimously voted ‘No Action’ on Warrant Article 2.

In response to discussion regarding modification of the Article 1b. language to include all Town naming authorities, the Chair indicated that he would consult the Town Moderator as to the appropriateness of using broader language in the Committee’s Recommendation for Article 1b.

The Committee posed questions regarding Article 1a. both to petition proponent, Peter Finney, and to School Committee Chair Christine Smith, received other comments from the public, and discussed the matter at great length without taking a formal vote on either Article 1a. or 1b.

4. Adjourn
After polling the Committee as to member availability during the week of July 20th, the Chair tentatively scheduled the next meeting for July 22nd at 7:00 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary