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Commission debates limits on directing town staff, seeks charter language to guarantee timely board access to information
Summary
Commission discussed whether the Board of Selectmen or other boards may direct staff, and how to ensure boards and commissions can obtain timely reports through the town manager; no final revision adopted, staff to draft clarifying language.
Commissioners spent extensive time debating a proposed charter sentence that would restrict elected officials from directing town employees while ensuring boards and commissions can obtain necessary information in a timely manner. The discussion centered on balancing the need to prevent ad hoc orders to staff with the practical requirement that boards — especially the Board of Finance and land-use bodies — be able to get reports and data to fulfill legal duties.
Commissioners and staff agreed on a core principle: the town manager should be responsible for ensuring town staff deliver information and support to elected and appointed boards. But several commissioners said that practice must be backed by clearer charter language and practical safeguards so a future town manager could not withhold information. One participant proposed adding that the town manager must "provide such resources, information, analysis, staffing, and support to all elected boards and commissions as such boards and commissions require to fulfill their duties" and that boards may request relevant, reasonably necessary information in a timely fashion.
Panel members noted exceptions and complexity for boards that have direct statutory access to certain staff (for example, the Board of Finance and finance director, police commission and police chief, or the public works director) and also discussed whether chairs or presiding officers should have limited authority to request information directly. Several commissioners said the charter can preserve the town manager as the primary conduit while allowing narrowly defined direct requests in sections that define relationships for specific boards.
Commissioners also discussed enforcement: one speaker noted that a charter duty without consequence is weak; commissioners suggested strengthening implementation by making timely information provision a performance standard used in the town manager’s annual review conducted by the board of selectmen.
"They all relate to either transparency, accountability, or checks and balances," resident Lisa Abner told the commission as members discussed the draft wording.
The commission asked staff to add proposed text clarifying: (1) the town manager’s responsibility to supply timely information and resources; (2) a limited carve‑out permitting chairs of boards to request information directly when appropriate and defined elsewhere in the charter (for Board of Finance, police commission, etc.); and (3) that the board of selectmen will hold the town manager accountable through annual review if information requests are not timely.
