Gray--The new Town Council and the Town Manager met
Monday night in workshop session to take care of housekeeping
items that turned out to be not so mundane.
As the new Council is seated and begins work, the
usual first items of business are to review and prioritize
the Council's work for the near term, re-affirm the
Council Rules, discuss whether to continue the workshop
schedule, and other various items that the new Council
may want to keep the same or change, according to
their wishes.
Chair Gary Foster asked whether the Council had comment
on reaffirming the Council Rules. Councilor Skip Crane
said that he would be in favor of re-adopting the
Council Rules, with an additional backup of another,
more specific set of parliamentary procedures, such
as Robert's Rules. Later in the meeting, Gray resident
Don Crandall supported that stance, saying that parliamentary
procedure helps stave off chaos and helps to organize
a debate.
The Council also discussed backing down on having
regular workshop sessions twice a month. In addion
to workshops, the Council also meets twice a month
in regular meetings. In years past there were no standing
workshops, just regular meetings.
The workshop is an informal meeting at which Council
gathers to talk business. Initially, 'workshops' were
a one-topic meeting dedicated to thorough discussion
of a complex issue that may have chewed up too much
time at a regular meeting. Over time, these infrequent,
one-topic meetings gravitated to regularly scheduled
workshop meetings that conducted as much business
and bore little distinction from the regular meetings,
except that they were not televised.
Chair Foster said that for a start he would like to
see the workshops drop down to once a month, and Councilor
Skip Crane said he saw no problem with that. Councilor
Denise Duda agreed. The Council will now meet in workshop
session on the second Monday of the month. All meetings
of the Council are open to the public.
The next item discussed was potentially changing Town
meeting to be held earlier in the year. Attendance
may be higher at a March or April meeting, Mr. Foster
said, than a Saturday in June.
Ms. Duda said that she was in favor of having Town
meeting held at any time when it would not conflict
with the community's high school graduation, as it
did this year. Though, she said that there are many
storms in March that might make attendance just as
iffy as having it in June.
North Yarmouth has its town meeting in May and this
year their turnout of 270 was characterized as low.
New Gloucester also has its town meeting in May and
reflected the steady attendance as in years past of
about 120.
Vice-Chair Andy Upham said that the idea of a change
of Town meeting date is to facilitate citizen participation,
"but I would like to know more about the impact
on the town." He asked for information from Manager
Mitchell A. Berkowitz regarding the impact of moving
the meeting. He had a concern about impacts to fiscal
projections, budget creation, and elections, which
are held in June. A survey will be sent out and when
enough data has been gathered the Council will revisit
the issue. Changing Town Meeting would require amending
the Charter, which is done by public vote at referendum.
The Council also reported to its members and for audience
benefit the discussion that was held last Thursday
at a meeting regarding the Pennell issue. The SAD
15 officials, the Gray Public Library Association,
and the Council, along with their attorneys, held
a meeting at Stimson Hall to talk about the transfer
of Pennell to the GPLA.
Mr. Foster reported what happened at that meeting
to his peers, but refused to allow discussion because
the item was not on the agenda. Allowing discussion
on the issue, Mr. Foster said, would disadvantage
the community members who might like to comment but
were not aware the topic was being presented. He cautioned
Councilors not to discuss the issue, either, at this
time.
He encouraged any citizen to speak to the issue at
the July 5 Council meeting. The Pennell issue would
be placed on the agenda for discussion and Mr. Foster
said he would welcome comments then.
