Charter Change Chicanery

To contact us Click HERE

Ken O’Brien

Want to be taken for a ride?

Back in October, you may recall, I submitted an openmeeting law complaint that resulted in the town council being required totake a formal vote on proposed amendments to the special legislation to amendthe Southbridge Home Rule Charter.
At the time I expressed the view that the agendaitem proposed on the October15 town council meeting agenda was notproperly formulated.
Yesterday I decided to follow up on this matter. 
I sent the following email to Senator Richard Moore:
DearSenator Moore:
Earlierthis year the House and Senate passed and the Governor signed H. 4039 throughH. 4048 pertaining to a series of amendments to the Southbridge Home RuleCharter.
Eachpiece of legislation specified that ratification of each amendment would bedetermined “at a regular or special town election to be held in the year 2012”.
Ata meeting of the Southbridge town council held on October 15, 2012, the counciladopted a motion which read, “Vote to amend Section 2 of the speciallegislation for the 10 Articles adopted by the Legislature and approved by theGovernor and to change the year from 2012 to 2013 in conjunction with theTown’s annual election of June 2013.”
Canthe town council amend the terms of legislation adopted by the legislature andsigned into law by the Governor? Wouldn’t such a change require the legislatureto approve amendments to the existing laws and have those amendments signed bythe Governor? Are any such amendments pending?
Lookingforward to your reply, I remain
Sincerely, Kenneth M. O’Brien
In very short order I received the following reply:

DearKen,
TheLegislature is in the process of amending the charter bills using the oneportion that was not acted upon and redrafting it to amend all of the bills toallow for the vote of the people in 2013. I expect this bill to pass in the next few weeks.  The town has indicated their approval of thistechnical change.
SenatorMoore
I followed up by requesting a copy of the proposedamendments. I received a response from Shawn Collins, the Senator’s chief ofstaff:

Mr.O’Brien –
SenatorMoore has asked that I send you a copy of the pending amendment to theSouthbridge charter bills to accommodate a special election in 2013 as opposedto 2012.  
Attachedis the amendment that is currently pending before the House Committee on ThirdReading.  I’m not sure of their timelinefor consideration.
Ifyou have any additional questions, or require any additional information,please don’t hesitate to ask.
HappyThanksgiving!Shawn
The attached draft legislation is as follows:
FLOORAMENDMENTMr.  Durant of Spencer moves that House No. 3900be amended by substitution, in part, of a bill with a new title and with thefollowing new text:“Anact making corrective changes to certain amendments to the town of Southbridgecharter. SECTION 1. Section 2 of chapter 264 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended bystriking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting inplace thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION2.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed. SECTION 3. Section 2 of chapter 265 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended bystriking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting inplace thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION4.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed. SECTION 5. Section 2 of chapter 266 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended bystriking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting inplace thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION6.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed.SECTION7.  Section 2 of chapter 267 of the actsof 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time itappears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION8.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed.SECTION9.  Section 2 of chapter 268 of the actsof 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time itappears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION10.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed.SECTION11.  Section 2 of chapter 269 of the actsof 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time itappears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION12.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed. SECTION 13. Section 2 of chapter 270 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended bystriking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting inplace thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION14.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed. SECTION 15. Section 2 of chapter 271 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended bystriking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting inplace thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION16.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed.  SECTION 17. Section 2 of chapter 272 of theacts of 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first timeit appears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION18.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed.SECTION19.  Section 2 of chapter 273 of the actsof 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time itappears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.SECTION20.  Section 3 of said chapter is herebyrepealed.SECTION21.  This act shall take effect upon itspassage.”              
Now it is myunderstanding that in matters of Home Rule legislation, a state legislator mustbe acting at the request of the town.
However, as I pointedout in my originalcriticism of the agenda item at the October 15 meeting, “Oh My God! Readagenda item 20:20. Vote to amendSection 2 of the special legislation for the 10 Articles adopted by theLegislature and approved by the Governor and to change the year from 2012 to2013 in conjunction with the Town’s annual election of June 2013.Who wrote that?The council, accordingto this item, is going to take it upon itself to amend state laws.The item should read:20. Vote to requestState Representative Peter Durant to introduce legislation to amend section2…(etc.)”
The town council,however, adopted the agenda item as originally proposed.
This raises thequestion “On what authority is Representative Durant acting?” The vote of theSouthbridge town council did not empower him to undertake this action on behalfof the town.
Senator Moore noted, “Thetown has indicated their approval of this technical change.”
How has the townindicated their approval of this technical change? I have seen no subsequentaction by the council elaborating upon their original vote to amend thelegislation (which they had no power to do). Furthermore, the agenda item votedby the town council specifically provided that the legislation be amended tospecify that the vote on the amendments be held  “…in conjunction with the Town’s annualelection of June 2013.” This is not a condition embodied in the amendmentsintroduced by Representative Durant.
Is this another “administrativeaction” by the town manager? If so it is an assumption of the legislativeauthority of the council. While the council took a vote on an illegitimateagenda item, it does not accord the town manager the authority to re-interpretit as he sees fit.
But, once again Isuspect the public will care very little about the sloppy procedure of our towngovernment, even when they were advised of how to fix the problem before theyvoted.