001[Music] a little after 6. So I'd like to call the special meeting to order. Uh we do have just one agenda item tonight is possible action regarding the charter revisions final report. Um essentially what our decision here tonight is simply to either accept the final report or approve the final report or decide that there's something we want them to reconsider, send that back to them and that starts a process of a public hearing and meetings and then they come back with another report. we have a public hearing, correct? And we go through the process again. So, um, you know, I think it's safe to say that if everyone's had a chance to read through their final report, the obviously the, uh, residency change for the town manager's position is, I believe, the only recommendation that
002they've made. Um, I don't know if anyone wants that read out loud to them or has any questions regarding what they're recommending change what their change is. What? Yeah. What the recommended change is. Um, we did get uh Deb wasn't able to be here tonight, but she did uh want share some of her thoughts. She uh let me get to the point. She she says she has concerns on the wording that it's much too vague. She's not sure if that was the intent, but she still thinks a measurement with mileage should be added to the revision. I spoke of this when we met with the committee, but they poo pooed it. As the wording is now, I am not in favor of it. Um, so I think Deb's looking to have some kind of radius
003clause, I guess, related to residency. Um, which, you know, Dave, I know that's something you've talked about. You've brought up a couple times. So, I guess we'll just open it up. Um, unless the town attorney, unless there's anything you want to add before we just get to I I did want to make a couple of comments since we were involved with this uh and had advised the commission through the process. Uh the commission did at one point consider the as uh um you had mentioned that they did consider the radius issue and they decided not to include that language. So what I would say is, and I understand the uh fact that the language uh you might consider it to be vague, but that was really part of what we considered what we wanted to
004accomplish because this is going to be the our current um provision was adopted about 60 years ago. So if this doesn't get amended for 60 years, the language gives future councils the latitude to decide what reasonably available let's say means through the contract. So that the way it works is the charter is like a minimum requirement. The contract that the council or future council could require a manager to sign could indicate that reasonably available or even just as a contract term means maintaining regular office hours means living within a certain radius. That's part of your contract. You can always make the requirements more stringent than what the charter requires in the contract. You can't make them more liberal. Okay. So, that that would be what I would say. And I I do think that it
005was somewhat intentional to use a more vague term. Okay. Unless you have any other questions. That's what our what I do have a question, you know, and I Deb or Councilwoman Tomkins mentions it being vague, but you know, is there any possibility that you could read the language they're using and interpret it to mean that the town manager could work at home full-time? It says that um that the duties of the manager by remote means one necessary if not available in person. So reading it would be very difficult to say that that's a reasonable interpretation since it says he's got to be there or she has to be there in person. Yeah. Okay. Now so it's only remote if they can't make it in person. Yep. that and then it they have to be have
006to be reasonably available. Okay. No, that that answers my question. I think all those provisions together work. Okay. All right. Anyone with a question or a comment, Mr. Yes. You know, I'm I've thought a lot about this and I am comfortable with the uh with what the uh charter revision commission has presented to us. Um, you know, certainly there are some merits that there could be with a town manager living in town. Some of them have been expressed by residents at our meetings and and they do have some merit, but I think we also have to look at the other side of the question. What are the disadvantages? And uh I think paramount is the difficulty in finding good candidates that have the the breadth of experience that have the knowledge base uh that have
007the proven record of achievement and accomplishments in the field and we know that it's a tight field to to find candidates and uh I think that the overall question we have to ask ourselves is what is in the best interest of the town of Planeville and I think uh I believe that the best interest would be that we find a candidate that does have the experience, the knowledge, the record of achievement to do the job. You know, it's a pretty complex and it's a very large job and it takes a lot of skill and experience and I think if we frame the decision-making process in terms of what is in the best interest of the town, I think it does come down on the side of not having a specific residency requirement. I think it's
008also been just helpful now to hear, you know, our town attorney say that in terms of the hiring process, uh, when we should be in that process again, we do have the flexibility to make the requirements more specific. And, um, I think that, uh, is another reason why I'm comfortable accepting the, um, the amendment as it has been written. And just so for clarification, if we if we approve the final report, we we're not saying that th this question is going on the November ballot. This is just us tonight. We're just either approving the final report or we're sending it back for them to look at whatever we ask them. If you approve the final report, this is the question that's going on the back. Okay. All right. Now, we will draft explanatory text, etc.
009But that will be the the revision right there that you have in front of you, Mr. chairman. All right. And then there's a process as far as you know 60 days out or I mean I'm 90 days out. I don't we have to start the actual we have to file it in September I believe. Yeah. Right. Okay. Uh and Mr. Chair and and the commission if we do not make a recommendation tonight the commission goes out of uh existence or they're done. Yes. Their job is done. If you approve the report tonight they're done. Okay. All right. Anyone else? Mr. Chair. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Councilman Hurley. I was just going to ask if we could have the there's three people in our audience if we could ask them what they think. We can
010I mean I I you know I I think we just heard from at least two of them last night. They made it clear. I mean it's okay. I mean do you guys want to add anything that you haven't said already? I mean I'll give you a minute if you want to say something. Go ahead. I mean, John Kiss 65 Forest Avenue. Well, thank you for this opportunity to speak because I didn't expect to speak tonight. I just came here to listen to your decisions. Um, the only thing that I see like uh Deb Thompson said is a little confusing. I'm wondering what the question will be on the ballot for the people because something like this can be really confusing. I mean, if you have a yes or a no, you know, simplify it for
011the people, you know, I I don't know how you Well, I think it's going to be a change in language. You know what what I imagine would happen is section uh section one will say, you know, do you yes or no to changing the language of section one to this? And that will be the yes or no question. Correct. Will the original section one be on there also? From A to B. So it'll show what's being deleted. I believe that the way they'll do it is they'll show the cross out and the addition. Okay. So, you'll see what's being taken out. There'll be an explanation of that. That'll be on the ballot. No, the explanation won't be on the ballot, but we can The language for the ballot. It'll it'll look just like this one
012here. Correct. It's crossed off. The the language and the structure of the question is dictated by the Secretary of State's office. We have parameters from them how we have to specifically word it. Okay. I understand sometimes it is confusing and and it gets a little bit awkward, let's say, but it will end up being a yes or no. Absolutely. For whatever it is. Absolutely. Yes. And that's the only way you can beat. John, I I suggested a multiple choice. Yeah. But we can't I'm happy with yes or no. But if the secretary of state Yeah. I mean, they're well qualified to put the questions on these things. So, I feel comfortable with that because people don't understand. They they don't read the newspapers anymore. they they don't pay attention to what's going on. They get
013up there and they see something that could be a little confusing and they really don't know what they're voting on. Well, and and that's going to be on us, I think, as a council, whatever we decide on if we decide on putting something on a November ballot is making sure people see this and understand what's being removed and what we're asking to replace it with. And and you know, I do think we're getting better. I I think we're starting to, you know, we understand how to communicate and getting stuff out on social media a little bit better than we were maybe five years ago. So, I Yeah, we'll do our best. And I I I believe we're allowed to send an explanatory explanatory text. Yeah, we'll be able to send something out to everyone in
014town to explain what's going on. Are we are we allowed to hang something at at each polling location? Explanator explanatory. Yeah, there's a like a poster. We got to print the posters up and it's going to have all that. It's saw part of it. Yeah. Now, were you saying there's going to be more public hearings on this? No. If we if we accept if we approve the final report, there will not be any more Okay. public hearings. Yep. If we send it back asking them to take a look at one or two things. Yeah. Then yes, there is a process where I think they have to have a public hearing. I think we have to have a public hearing. I think we go through the process we just went through. I'm kind of tired of
015saying the same thing anyway. So, that's good. Thank you for letting me speak. All right. Yeah, go ahead. Marilyn Sher, 18 Milford Street, Planeville. Uh my one question is how long uh maybe Cindy can answer this before we will know uh what the wordage will be, the verbiage. Um depending on what happens this evening, what the vote or the decision by the council will be depending on if it goes back to charter revision as a result of any recommendations. Um then we get the act secretary of states actually approve the question. So once it's worded um I assume Morris and myself worked on it together, get it off to Secretary of State, they approve it. What's the earliest we can publish the question? Yeah, we got to publish that. Um I'll I can get you
016the time frame. I don't want to misquote, but yeah. Okay, I'd appreciate it. Sure. And I I guess like John the the wording I'd like to see, you know, shall the town manager reside in Planeville? Yes or no? You know, well, it probably won't be quite that simple. Yeah. You know, you're going to see I think you're going to see the text that the charter revision recommended. you know, it's going to ask you, shall we change section one, chapter 4 to this, and it's going to be a yes or no. So, it might not be as simple as shall the town manager reside in Planeville. It's it's probably going to be exactly what the recommendation was from the charter revision which you know right now I guess says um town manager shall be reasonably available
017to perform the duties of the manager by remote means when necessary if not available in person including electronic and cell cellular communications provided that within 90 days of appointment the manager sh establishes her p principal residence within the state of Connecticut. So that's that's but having a broad term of Connecticut, not Plainville. Correct. So they are their recommendation is to is to get rid of the residency in Plainville and change it to within Connecticut. If if I think to summarize it down to a what you're looking for, they're changing it from Planeville to Connecticut. Okay. Thank you for your time. All right. I I don't mean to put you on the spot since you're just for information purposes though. The uh Secretary of State, we have to get it to them by September. It'll be
018final. So, they'll have two months. Okay. At a minimum to see the whole thing. Absentee ballots. We should have anyway. Did you hear that, Marilyn? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yep. You're welcome. Tom Fod, 15 Bradley Street. I was on the commission, but speaking as a resident, not as a member of the commission. I don't want to speak for anybody who's not here. Um, you know, for me, what's important about the change is really it is the notion of what's best for the town. Trying to make sure we have the ability to hire the candidate most qualified. And um in a perfect world, that person would be uh a resident of the town or or perhaps be interested in being a resident of the town depending on life circumstances, but we all know life circumstances aren't
019that simple. Uh if we're hiring a 22-year-old fresh out of college as our town manager, moving to town on the spur of the moment might not be a big deal. But um so I do you know I do I am personally in favor of the language because of the flexibility it gives this council the next council and councils going forward um under the um sort of the guidance of the town attorney on how we make a contract that makes sense for the town within that broad language. So that's all. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, Councilman Gtman, I know you had your hand up at one time. I just have a couple of couple of thoughts. Um, as as I thought about this, I really tried to remove myself from the current situation and
020look at it long term and what's what's best for the town. Um, and from what I understand, I wasn't on the council previous to this term. It was tough getting hiring a town manager and the in and the pool of candidates that came in when we when there was a definite residency requirement just weren't there. Um, as soon as it got changed, the candidate pool got was much improved from what I understand. Um, and the I have a problem with the argument that the town manager needs to live in town because he needs to suffer the consequences, pay the taxes, drink the water. My personal opinion is if he has to live in this town to care about it, we hired the wrong person. I I don't want them as my town manager if that's
021what what is going to make them care about this town. With that said, I was it was ridiculously hard to remove myself or remove look at from the outside and not be in our current situation. I think our current situation works pretty good. There is never a time when you can't get a hold of the town manager because you got five phone numbers. Yeah. I I we try real hard not to bug him when we don't need don't have to, but he's there. He And I don't think I've ever been to an event that he's not there. Um uh there was one that you had to leave early and it was it was the opening at Moi Donut. That's the only time I could remember that you had to leave early and it was something
022for the town. It wasn't even personal and you're available. It's it to me it just makes sense. All right, Mr. Yes. You know, in addition to the comments I made a little while ago, just wanted to mention too that, you know, we did add not we the commission added the u the language about availability. Now, you know, one could argue, well, that was understood or it was implicit before, too. But I think it is very important that it is stated this time knowing that we can make it more specific even in terms of a specific contract. Uh, and I don't think we should overlook the fact that now it's stated, the availability is going to be a factor and an expectation of of any current or future uh, town manager. And I think it's important
023that it's actually stated this time. So, in other words, we're not going back to the voters with the exact same question. You know, it's been reworked. I agree. And and added to. And just a quick question probably for the town attorney. So, you know, say we made say this change was approved. If at some point whoever the town manager is and that particular council decided, yes, we want you to live in town through the contract, they can make that happen. They could. Okay. It would have to be some reasonable time after the and they'd have to both agree and sign it because you can't require residency as a condition to apply. Okay, that would be uh there's a case that says that would be unconstitutional. You only make it a condition once they've given been
024given the job and you have to give them a reasonable time to move. So, if you did want to do that, the council would have the power to do that. In fact, you know, as a scenario to play it out, if you wanted to game it out and you had two relatively equivalent candidates and one of them said, "I will move here in a year or whatever." I mean, I'm going to do it and they signed on the dotted line, you could hold them to that, right? Now, if you really, you know, you could do that as far as a contract, as I said, these provisions create a minimum standard. You can always go further in the contract to whatever you can get somebody to agree to. Yeah. All right. Anyone else? Any comments, questions?
025Um, I'll just say, you know, I was part of the last council that went through the hiring process, and I think a couple of us are up here tonight, and there was the when the consultant made it known that we were going to look to remove the residency requirement, our pool of candidates improved tenfold. I I you know, I can't understate that enough. And quite honestly, I think we're moving away from overall I think less and less town managers are probably required to live in the town they work for. And I, you know, I think Councilman Getan makes a good point that if if you need to be in the town to be effective or to care about the town that you work for. Um, I I kind of agree with I think that's a
026nice way to say it that, you know, town manager is a professional. um, you know, it's a professional uh, process. He he, you know, he's gone through training and and, you know, I just looking and again, I I think looking at it outside of our current situation, it's clearly something that has to be addressed because it's it's not going to work. And I think going through this last round proved that it's it's going to be problematic going forward. And and doing nothing is not the option. and and you know, you may personally not feel that changing it to what the recommendation is isn't the answer, but I think we have a responsibility to try and change it. And cuz quite honestly, this council could have just kicked the can down the road and said, "We're
027going to let somebody else deal with this." And I think to our credit, we decided we're going to try to resolve the issue uh before we get uh to November in the general election. and and quite honestly the easiest decision would have been to tell the town manager we'll give you five years to move into town and let two councils from now deal with it and you know I think the fact that we've looked inward and and are trying to take responsibility for this and to make some changes that we think are effective and the fact that some of us up here went through the last hiring process. I think I think this is reasonable and and I you know I I I can't tell you enough and and I again we're looking in a
028bigger picture but you know with where we are right now as a as a town I think we're going in the right direction. I think, you know, the town manager and his support staff and and the assistant town manager, I think we are we have good employees doing great things. And and I I just think we can't lose that focus that just because they're not living in town doesn't mean they're not doing a good job or that they're not vested in the community because if he's not doing a good job, you know, the council has to hold them responsible. And I just I just don't feel in this day and age that the residency requirement is needed. And I think if it is going to hinder us getting the the best applicants, it's going to
029um we are going to have to I guess lower our expectations if we keep this residency requirement in there the way it's written. I I really feel that. And uh I know the good news is we're going to have, you know, depending on what we decide here tonight, but going forward, we're going to have several months for us to discuss this with the public. Um I'm educate and I I you know, and I'm looking forward I I you know, my recommendation would be to have some publicformational meetings. I would be very happy to have discussions and not so much to change people's minds, but to make sure that they understand where we're coming from. And I know the Charter Revision Commission has, I believe, has even offered to kind of help uh help deliver the
030message or at least deliver the message as they saw it. Um so that people understand where we're coming from. So, you know, I I wanted to talk about the radius thing. I did want that to come up tonight and have some discussion. I'm glad we did. I just, you know, at this point I I my recommendation would be we we approve the final report tonight and then we go forward with that and then now it's up to us to have this communication with the rest of the town and to explain why we're doing what we're doing um and go forward. Yeah, Mr. You know, once again, just expanding on what I said before, you know, I did go through the process uh the hiring process the last time I was on the council at the
031time, and if we hadn't held out the uh the possibility that, you know, and said that we were in the going to be in the process of changing the residency requirement, uh I think we would have had a much more difficult time. And I think if we were to keep the residency requirement carved in stone and in the charter, we could be facing situations where we could either hire somebody that we had some some really concerns or or doubts about, you know, suspend the uh the search process for a year and hire an interim and then go back to it. Um but that but you know, not finding a good solid excellent candidate could be a real possibility. And um I know that's something that I'll be discussing with people that I speak to uh
032between now and November. No, Mr. Chair. Yes. I would just like to comment on the radius argument. I I completely understand that argument, but it that the radius actually goes against what we've heard from the public of people that are against this this change that want the town manager to live in town, taxes, water. You know, I I do understand where where the radius argument comes in. But it doesn't this day and age I don't think it makes you any more available to be 10 miles away as it does 30 miles away. Okay. You know, uh I want to comment if I miss. Yes. Go ahead. Um the the um inventory of housing here in Plainville is very very low. Yeah. My suggestion was to put a 10 mile radius um because of the inventory
033situation. it would give him the opportunity to move uh anywhere in the area. Berlin, Farmington, Bristol, uh Southernington, I mean, we can go on and on, not even Plymouth. And that's why I suggested a radius, right? Um and and I get I completely understand where you're coming from. I do because if the people vote again and they say that the manager has to live in Planeville, at least the 10 milei radius would give him the opportunity to buy something that he's looking for uh with everything that he's looking for for a decent price and and the inventory would be there. It would be inventory right now is so low that it's it's there's nothing available. For every house that's available, there's 25 people looking to buy it. Yeah. And that was the reason for the
034the 10 milei radius. And I get that. Yeah. All right. Anyone else? So, if there are no other comments, I mean, do we make a formal motion to approve the final report? Is that the next thing that's in order? Is that is that something I mean, are we acceptable to that, Mr. Chair? Yes. I would like to make a motion to accept the Charter Revision Commission's final draft report and send it to the people, I think. Right. That's all we need is just we approve the final. No amendments. No amendments, no changes. All right. Anyone want to second that? Second. All right. Comments or questions? All right. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? All right. You're done. Thank you. And and we'll make sure we get the rest of the charter revision, but
035thank you for all the work. I know it's sometimes it feels like a no- win no matter what you decide, but we appreciate the work and the especially the turnaround. We we we asked for a pretty big lift in a short amount of time. Um but I guess we take it from here as they say, right? Don't worry, Tom. We'll find something else for you to do. And you know, council, you know, thank you. I I know this has been this has gone quickly. Um, I think it helped that we've gone through it previous. Uh, but you know, I want to thank you to the council for being open-minded and I know, you know, for some of us it may seem difficult to bring this to the voters again. I mean, it is different than
036what we had the two years ago, but you know, just because it's hard doesn't mean it's something that shouldn't get done. So, and if I'm not mistaken, the three of us, you and Rosemary and myself were on the council and Deb and and that but I'm saying here tonight the three of us um it was our experience that the first round of of people that we interviewed uh definitely did not meet our qualifications. Nope. And we had a consultant also to instruct us and inform us as to how we should handle this. Well, and that's quite honestly that's where the discussion started with the consultant saying that residency requirement is hindering your my ability to recruit people. That was her exact quote I believe. So, you know, it's not something we made up. It's something
037that a prof, you know, we certainly heard it from a professional, but um All right. Well, thank you. Uh motion to adjurnn. So moved. All those in favor? Hi. Thank you everyone. [Music]