Canton, Massachusetts · Saved source text
By-law minutes Dec 12, 2024
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Municipal By-law Modernization Committee Minutes for December 12, 2024 Pequitside Tavern, 7:00 pm Members Present: George T. Comeau, Louis Jutras, Jen Kemalian, Paul McAuliffe, Randy Scollins, Gilda McGonagle Absent: Mike Loughran, William Kring, Susan Harrington The meeting was called to order by the chair George Comeau at 7:01 pm. The chair moved to the first agenda item of the approval / discussion on the minutes from the meeting of November 7, 2024. No comments or corrections were discussed so Mr. Scollins offered a motion to approve the minutes. The motion was seconded by Ms. Kemalian and Mr. McAuliffe and the motion passed 6-0. The Chair noted that the Town Clerk Tracy Kenney attended the meeting as well as Zachary Dumont from General Code who was remotely connected to review and discuss their company background and proposal of services. Mr. Comeau gave a brief background as to why we reached out to General Code and ask Mr. Dumont to provide some information on the company, the proposal, and other projects of this nature. Before Mr. Dumont began the Chair asked Mr. Jutras to provide some comments on his interaction with General Code prior to this meeting. Mr. Jutras commented that he contacted General Code, spoke with Mr. Dumont and outlined the reason that the committee was established. Mr. Jutras provided Mr. Dumont a copy of our By-Laws and received the proposal that the members have before then. Mr. Jutras introduced Mr. Dumont and he began his review of the company and proposal. General Code began over 60 years ago and currently have about 4,000 clients in 44 states. Mr. Dumont is the Account Manager for the New England area and has 3 codification / legal staff members as part of his team. These members have between 7 to 25 years of codification experience with New England based clients. General Code offered 2 options for this project: solution 1 was a Codification Project and solution 2 was a Reformat Project. Mr. Dumont spoke at length on all of the points and options in the 2 solutions with the biggest difference being that solution 1 includes an editorial and legal analysis which would identify possible conflicts, redundancies, and inconsistencies in our code. Both solutions include the creation of a new code structure, converting the current material into a new format that would be accessible online and thru an app for smartphone / tablets, preliminary and final drafts, 3 printed copies, an index, disposition list, derivation table, code adoption legislation, and eCode360 platform. Page | 1
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The entire project would take between 18 and 24 months to complete and Mr. Dumont provided a sample timetable that outlined that scope. As Mr. Dumont was discussing his proposal various questions were raised by the committee members. Ms. McGonagle asked a question on related section review of our by-law and was wondering how General Code approached the possible reorganization of material. Mr. Dumont responded that at any time during the process that the committee can provide focus areas or wording requests / details that we would like added or updated in the code. Mr. Comeau inquired of Mr. Dumont as to the extent and goal of General Code Legal Review and what else would need to be done with that information. Mr. Dumont stated that the Legal Review process will result in comments and/or details on possible changes. This information still needs review at our local level by Town Counsel. Ms. McGonagle then asked about the review process and specifically if there was a way to review and receive subsets of the By-Law or if we would receive the entire set at one time. Mr. Dumont commented that we would receive the content as one packet but that each section / chapter would show a question indicator which would indicate areas that needed further comment or review. We then can respond to any section in any order and once all of the items are address then the final document would be created. The timeline and final document discussion prompted Mr. Comeau to ask about the process of adopting the changes as well as any option for the public / other related parties to have access to the new layout during this time. Mr. Dumont noted that during the review process it is possible to provide access to the code. Once the code is finalized the committee will receive one or two documents that outline the changes and this material would be use for a Town Meeting article to adopt the changes. Ms. Kenney, the Town Clerk, asked about training and the cost for any yearly By-Law updates. Mr. Dumont responded that the yearly support fee for the eCode360 platform is $1,195 a year and that he will provide an estimate, based on other communities in Massachusetts that they service, as to the potential cost for the By-Law updates. Training is included in the yearly support fee. General Code has various monthly training webinars, they will provide onsite staff training, and we can contact their support staff in New York at any time. Ms. Kemalian and Mr. Scollins asked if the current proposal included our Zoning / Land Use By- Law. Mr. Dumont responded that the current price for solution 1 does not but he has already submitted an internal request for that pricing. Mr. Dumont believes that the Zoning section is about the same size as the rest of our general by-laws so he is expecting the cost to be about the same as the proposed solution 1 option which is just under $14,000. Mr. Dumont also noted and was able to show examples to the committee that their platform can incorporate tables, maps, images, and charts in both the body and as attachments in the eCode360 platform. Page | 2
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Ms. Kenney had a question on submissions to the Attorney General for approval. She stated that the Attorney Generals office has requested original, proposed, and marked up versions of the changes and was wondering if they can accommodate this. Mr. Dumont discussed and showed the option that you can download any part of section of the code, have it in the proper format in a word processing program, and then use function in the word processing program to track the changes. He also noted that anyone with a login to the eCode360 platform can add notes and links to any of the sections that are only available to internal staff. After all of the questions were answered Mr. Comeau asked Mr. Dumont for a brief review of solution 2 which he replied that it is everything in solution 1 but does not contain the legal review and analysis. Mr. Comeau thanked Mr. Dumont for his presentation and discussion. Mr. Comeau then asked Mr. Dumont to provide the committee a formal proposal for solution 1 with a breakout of the cost to incorporate the Zoning By-Laws. Mr. Dumont will work on that quote and also noted that he will list an additional option that they have which will point out any gender-based verbiage. All of the committee members agreed with this approach and will wait for the final proposal. Mr. Dumont left the meeting at this time. Mr. Comeau asked Ms. Kenney what she felt about this potential project and she mentioned that she was aware of General Code for years and that any time the company name was discussed at a Town Clerks meeting that it was always positive. Ms. McGonagle noted to Ms. Kenney the discussion that she had with Middleboro and that Ms. Kenney might want to follow up with them. Mr. Comeau and Ms. McGonagle discussed the need to have Planning, Zoning, and the Building Commissioner at a future meeting so we can get their input on moving forward with the same review and eCode360 platform. Ms. McGonagle focused on the fact that if we engage General Code in the project for the complete By-Law review that there is one 18 to 24-month timetable and that Planning and Zoning would need to work on their section independent of this committee. Once the Zoning By-Law discussion finished, Mr. Comeau started a discussion on Town Meeting and the need for an article for additional funds. Ms. McGonagle felt that we should use the Information Systems (IT) budget for any additional needs. Mr. Scollins, Mr. Jutras, and Mr. Comeau responded that the IT budget might be able to cover the small difference in the proposed project if the combined cost was around $26,000 since the committee has $22,000 available in this fiscal year. The IT budget could incorporate the yearly support fee of $1,195 but Mr. Comeau pointed out that we still need to engage with a consultant in ways to actually modernize the By-Laws. The General Code project will benefit everyone by creating a user- friendly version that adds many functions and options that we currently don’t have but that is it. Mr. Comeau noted that the warrant has been opened for the May Town Meeting and that Page | 3
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he will work on a placeholder article. Mr. Scollins noted that we would not need the final requested funding amount until sometime in February or March. At this time the committee discussed it next meeting date and set January 23, 2025 as the date. Mr. Comeau offered a motion to adjourn. The motion made by Mr. Scollins, seconded by Ms. McGonagle and the motion was unanimously approved. The committee adjourned at 8:42 pm Respectfully submitted, _____________________________________ Louis Jutras, Clerk Page | 4