N.S. officials mull charter changes
NORTH SMITHFIELD – The town council spent nearly four hours Monday night working its way through proposed charter changes recommended by the Charter Review Commission for the Nov. 6 election ballot but may have hit a snag on whether to ask voters if the town council’s elected town administrator post should become a council-appointed one.
The council in fact took up that question as a last item of business during its discussion in the middle school cafeteria, where it also weighed such issues as asking voters to enact term limits of a total of eight years for elected posts, and making the requirements to hold recall elections easier.
As of Monday night, the council acted in a 3-2 vote to keep the town’s current elected town administrator, a position held by Gary Ezovski, elected as opposed to asking voters to consider adopting an elected town manager form of government, with Council President John Be- auregard and member Terri Bartomioli opposed.
The move not to place the question before the voters was supported by members Thomas McGee, Claire O’Hara, and Paul Zwolenski, after all three voiced support for an elected town administrator position prior to the vote.
But that decision could change when the panel continues its work on the charter recommendations on Thursday after some council members said it could be reconsidered for placement on the ballot so the voters will get a chance to decide it.
Other recommended charter changes considered Monday included whether the five-member town council should be given two additional members and also whether the councilors were to be elected every two years or every four, or whether the school committee should remain in its current form of five elected members and two members being appointed by the town administrator and the town council.
The council voted unanimously to put the term limit question on the ballot and ruled 3-2, with Council President John Beauregard and Paul Zwolenski opposed, to allow recall elections based on successful petitions meeting a requirement of 30 percent of the number of voters casting votes in the prior election for the challenged seat. Council members Thomas McGee, Claire O’Hara and Bartomioli agreed to place the recall changes before local voters in November. Beauregard argued that the activation threshold could be too low, resulting in frequently challenges to officials making difficult and unpopular decisions for the town.
Council membership was kept at five without going to a ballot question and all the town’s elected positions were decided to remain at two year terms
Many of the recommendations considered by the council were for wording changes in the charter that may be combined into one or more questions just for technical changes when the election ballot is set.
But there were also proposals from the charter review commission for increasing the town council, town administrator and school committee’s elected terms to four year terms on a staggered basis, and adding the additional council members, that were passed over by the panel after members such as McGee said he was “comfortable with” keeping a five member council and Beauregard suggested that if the council were to have two year terms, the other elected positions should also serve for two years for continuity.
The panel did run into opposition from charter commission chair Paul Vadenais on its interest in holding a review on changes proposed by the commission, with Vadenais suggesting that they should be forwarded directly to the voters for the voters to decide the lengthy list of suggestions.
“This was presented by the commission to be put forward to the voters to decide it, and you are making the decisions for them,” Vadenais said at point in the council deliberations.
Beauregard, however, said that was the purview of the council under a charter review update, a point that Town Solicitor David V. Igliozzi supported.
While an initial charter for a community would be proposed by an independently elected charter commission under state law, Igliozzi said a charter update is conducted by a panel appointed by the council and filing recommendations that the council in turn weighs.
“It’s a council decision,” Igliozzi said while maintaining the council determines what is in fact placed before the voters.
McGee also voiced a view on that point while suggesting that the list of recommendations on charter changes could be confusing to local voters in mass and “a lot of voters would not be informed about some of the issues.” The council in turn would be presenting the voters with the questions that needed to be considered, he suggested.
After reviewing the list of changes submitted under a charter document that took into account most of the individually proposed revisions, the council finally took the up charter commission’s recommended charter that would go along with a change to an appointed town administrator/ town manager, position.
Igliozzi explained that the commission had separated the recommendation so that “if you were to embrace the concept of an appointed town administrator, this would go on the ballot.” The draft would include all the changes needed to move town government from an elected executive to one that was selected and appointed by the town council, he said.
“Why would you do that, because an elected town administrator has certain powers distinct of the council as opposed to appointed town administrator that is hired to work for the town council,” he said.
Beauregard said he found it to be a difficult question to decide. “I say it’s not for easy for me because I am really torn by the options,” Beaure- gard said while explaining he believed it was a question best left to the voters.
“Because I don’t know which way to go on this, I would leave to the voters. I don’t have an opinion I really don’t, I see the pros and cons on each side,” Beauregard said.
O’Hara said she was in favor of keeping an elected town administrator in the town, and said that would keep a person in the post who has “vested interests” in the town just as its other residents do.
Other nearby communities have had problems with appointed officials, she suggested, and in the end had to buy out their contracts.
“So I’m just going to tell you what I’ve seen and you all have a right to your opinion until I’m proven wrong about this,” she said. McGee in turn asked O’Hara if she was suggesting to stay with elected position, adding to O’Hara affirmative answer “I am 100 percent with you.”
Bartomioli said she believed the town had been fortunate in getting an administrator like Ezovski, “who chose to step into this.” But added that she also believes the elected position “a lot of times, it comes down to a popularity contest and I think we need a qualified person to be running this business of the town.’’
Ezovski, himself voiced support for a change to an appointed post, but added that he had concerns over the qualifications listed by the charter commission, a minimum of a masters degree and five years of prior experience, as making it potentially difficult to hire such a qualified person.
Ezovski, who holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Rhode Island and is the retired owner of an environmental services company, said he does not hold a masters degree and questioned whether he would be qualified for the job under the charter change.
“But I think that an appointed position is where we need to go,” Ezovski said while offering the consideration of the change should not be about the person involved but rather “the system that guides the town.”
“It is a complicated business that requires expertise and as confident as I am and I certain appreciate your kind words, I still don’t feel I have everything that is needed to be doing what all of us require,” Ezovski said in support of a professionally hired town administrator or town manager.
Zwolenski said he was not opposed to putting the question before the voters but also added that “I can tell you I have some grave concerns about the composition of whatever council that would be in the position of appointing a town administrator.”
Zwolenski said he believed the voters deciding who should be town administrator provided the necessary “checks and balances” to ensure a separation be- tween the town administration and the town council.
“I think people in town should make that decision every two years. And if they are doing a good job and its popularity contest so be it, that’s the voice of the people let their voices be heard,” Zwolenski said.
After Beauregard stated he would support placing the matter before the voters, the panel rendered its 3-2 decision on the topic and noted a final meeting to prepare the recommended items for the ballot would be held on Thursday evening in the school.
By Tuesday, members of the council were apparently rethinking their move not to put the town administrator recommendation on the ballot and one of those voting against it, Zwolenski, indicated it would be up for a reconsideration vote on Thursday.
Vadenais was also reported to have resigned from his position on the charter review commission with a letter to the Town Clerk over the council’s handling of the charter recommendations.
Zwolenski said he planned to vote for the reconsideration and placement of the administrator’s recommendation on the ballot. Local voters had considered such a change back in 2010 and rejected it by an overwhelming margin, but Zwolenski said it should still be their purview to decide the matter. “I am definitely going to change my vote. I am definitely going to let the voters decide what it is that they want,” he said.