Current Issues and Thoughts
April 15, 2006

The next selectmen’s meeting is Monday, April 17, at 5:00pm. This is a special meeting.

Filling the Selectman Vacancy

The reason for the special meeting is to keep working on the process for filling the open selectman seat. The step-by-step process for filling the vacancy is set out in my blog under “Process for Filling Open Selectman Seat”. If you want to look at it, just click on “Jim’s Blog” to the left, and when the new screen pops up click on “Process for Filling…”.

People who are interested in the selectman position should send a letter of interest or an email by noon on Thursday, April 20.

Part of the selection process will be interviews of the candidates. To help people prepare, the selectmen will be issuing a set of questions that may be discussed during the interviews. At Monday’s meeting, we will go over the list of questions and, hopefully, finalize it. Other questions not on the list can be asked during the interviews, but we wanted to give advance notice of some of the things that are likely to be covered.

Each selectman has been asked to put together three questions. These are my suggested questions:

1. Taxes. Last year the average take-home pay in our region was up only about 2.5%, and the outlook for this year is about the same. Taxes this year will be up 6-7%. If taxes go up faster than incomes, then taxpayers have less money for their families. Do you believe we should manage our town government so that any tax increases are kept in line with taxpayers’ own incomes? In other words, if incomes are up only 2.5%, then taxes should not go up more than 2.5%?
   
   
2. Management Structure. When the town administrator resigned, she said one of the problems is “micromanagement” by the board of selectmen. Do you agree? How should the selectmen address this to do better in the future? Do you think the town administrator should have more authority, so that the administrator is responsible for managing the day-to-day business of the town and the selectmen focus more on important policy issues?
   
   
3. Incentives. Do you support more “pay for performance” in town government? What else should the board of selectmen do so that town government has the right incentives to save money for taxpayers?

Town Administrator's Resignation

I don’t have the agenda yet, but I hope we will also talk about the town administrator’s resignation and the process for filling the position.

I believe the first step in this process is an internal one. The board of selectmen needs to decide whether to stay with the town administrator position, or recommend to the voters and taxpayers that we move to a “town manager” structure. There is a post on the blog for discussion of this topic.

If the decision is to stay with the town administrator (TA), then I believe we need to revise the job description. We should give the TA more authority and responsibility. I believe the TA’s job should be defined so that the person functions like a chief executive officer. The TA should have the authority and responsibility to manage the business and affairs of the town, just like a town manager does, subject to the direction and oversight of the board of selectmen. If the TA is given clear authority, responsibility and accountability for day-to-day management, then the selectmen will be able to focus on oversight and policy instead of detail.

We need to make these decisions before going out to search for a new head for the town government.

Please email me, call me or post on the blog if you have any questions, comments or thoughts.