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Selectboard weighs reducing planning board size and offering stipends
Summary
Board members discussed a resident survey showing support for paid part‑time planning board positions, and noted Vermont League guidance that reducing the board from seven to five members requires a town‑meeting vote; several stipend options were proposed.
The selectboard discussed whether the town’s planning board should move from a volunteer body to a paid, part‑time position and whether to reduce the board’s size.
A selectboard member (identified in the transcript as a selectboard member) said the planning board’s survey, which went out with tax notices, asked residents whether the panel should “continue being a volunteer board or a higher part‑time position,” and that “we're actually getting a lot of people thinking that it should be a higher part time position.” The member added they’d contacted the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and were told that reducing the board from seven to five would need to be approved at town meeting. Several board members said moving to five members could make it easier to achieve a quorum as members’ terms naturally expire.
Board members debated modest stipend options to recognize the board’s service while controlling costs: one proposal described in the meeting would pay $500 per year to each member if the board were reduced to five (about $2,500 total), and an alternative would pay a $500 chair stipend and a smaller token payment to other members if the panel remained at seven. No formal motion was made at the meeting; the item remains at the discussion stage pending potential inclusion on a future town‑meeting warrant.
