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Committee reviews H.505 to approve charter amendment removing municipal auditor position
Summary
The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee heard from the town manager about H.505, a bill to approve a voter-backed amendment that removes an auditor position from a town charter and clarifies use of outside audit firms. No committee vote was recorded in the transcript.
The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee met Thursday, April 24, and heard from Chris Violet, town manager for the Town of Berry, about H.505, a bill to approve amendments to a town charter that the transcript alternately names as "Barrie," "Berry" and "Erie." Violet told the committee the amendment would remove a municipal auditor position and clarify the town's ability to use outside firms for annual audits.
The bill matters, Violet said, because the town has used an outside auditing firm “for many, many years.” He told the committee the proposed legislation is intended to "clean up" the charter language after voters approved a related change last May. "This is a charter amendment that the voters of the town of Erie approved last May," Violet said. He added that the town previously amended the charter to remove the auditor role but left some related language in place and is now seeking to reconcile that wording.
Violet explained the recent sequence: about two years earlier the town amended the charter to remove the requirement to use an auditor; the select board at the time did not simultaneously repeal the auditor position language because of concern that voters might approve one change and not the other. "So the advice was to move forward with the charter amendment that repeals the auditor position and then subsequently come back with a charter amendment that actually removes the language," he said.
A committee member asked whether there was a vote count; Violet replied that the vote had been provided previously and that the voter approval occurred last May. The committee member noted not all committee members were present and said they would follow up if there were outstanding concerns.
The transcript does not record a committee vote on H.505 during this session. Violet told the committee he was available to answer further questions and closed by thanking the panel. The committee indicated it would get back in touch if additional information or witnesses were needed.
