Current Issues and Thoughts
October 7, 2006

The next selectmen’s meeting is Monday, October 9, 2006, at 5:35pm. The agenda for the meeting is available by clicking the link to the left.

At 6:00pm we'll interview Steven Knight as a candidate for alternate on the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). With citizens on the ZBA acting as Milford’s “land use judges”, I am hopeful that we’ll be able to discuss the importance of a training program for new members.

At 6:30pm we’ll discuss the 2007-2012 Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) with the advisory committee that worked on the plan. The purpose of the plan is to set out recommendations for capital investments by the town (new buildings, equipment, etc.). For the town to be able to collect “impact fees” from new residential and commercial development, in order to offset construction costs of the town’s new capital projects, a new capital project must be listed on the CIP. It will be interesting to discuss two areas – the proposed West End fire station, which was not put onto the CIP because of the desire for further needs analysis as well as the pending fire/ambulance merger discussions, and capital expenses at the schools. I favor getting “known” improvement projects on the CIP (so we can collect impact fees) even if the planning for them is not yet perfect.

At 7:00pm we’ll discuss Milford’s PEG Access TV program. The key question is how many taxpayer dollars to invest in this program versus other priorities, such as the town website.

Guy Scaife's regular "town administrator report" will include, among other things, an update on the budget process, the police station, the communications tower on Town Hall, and Badger Hill. Guy will also update us on “preliminary tax rate setting” for 2006 (that is, taking into account the town-wide revaluation). We are being asked for our approval, but the materials given to us state that the draft information “should not be disclosed to the public”. I guess I can’t say any more.

There are draft ethics “guidelines” on the table for the meeting! Hopefully we can adopt this, with appropriate changes, for town-wide application. Some of the immediate issues I see with the draft are: (1) it is stated as “guidelines” rather than “rules”, so it’s not clear whether there’s any “meat” to it; (2) the wording of some of the key provisions is deeply wishy-washy and seems to forget that the word “shall” is part of the English language and has a different meaning than “should” (“public officials should conduct their official and personal affairs in such a manner as to give the clear impression that they cannot be improperly influenced in the performance of their official duties”); (3) the guidelines miss one of the “big 3” that’s in virtually every ethics policy, which is a limitation on town employees accepting gifts from interested parties; and (4) there are no provisions about the consequences of violating ethics principles. I look forward to hearing from the two selectmen who worked on this why the town cannot just adopt the same simple, clear ethics rules that apply to all state employees.

I’m putting up a post on the blog so people can give input on these agenda items before Monday’s meeting.

Thanks in advance for your participation, and for your comments, thoughts and suggestions.