Canton, Massachusetts · Saved source text
By-law minutes July 21 2025
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Municipal By-law Modernization Committee Minutes for July 21 2025 Pequitside Tavern, 7:00 pm Members Present: George T. Comeau, Jen Kemalian, William Quinn, Randy Scollins, William Kring, Susan Harrington Absent: Paul McAuliffe and Louis Jutras The meeting was called to order by the Chair George Comeau at 7:00 pm. Mr. Comeau then opened the meeting for public comment and at this time there was no one from the public in attendance. Mr. Comeau noted that Ms. McGonagle had resigned from the committee. He noted that the Moderator is taking some candidates under consideration to be appointed as a citizen-at-large including Ms. McGonagle’s recommendation of Larry Overlan as her replacement. Mr. Comeau noted that a section of the bylaws that the committee had discussed as needing the most immediate attention is the set of bylaws concerning Annual Town Meeting. He suggested holding a few working group sessions consisting of former Town Moderators and the Town Clerk then moving on to the Finance Committee and other Town Meeting attendees to get their perspectives on what they feel works at Town Meetings and what needs to be improved or modernized. Dr. Harrington noted that she would like to see members of the public included who do not attend Town Meeting as well to get their perspectives. Mr. Comeau noted that Mr. Scollins had already provided the committee a breakdown on areas of the bylaws that concern the Finance Department that needed attention. He asked if Mr. Scollins would expand upon those areas of concern. Mr. Scollins highlighted several observations regarding bylaws. Article VII Part A Department of Municipal Finance Section A – Mr. Scollins recommended clarification of the language concerning the authority of the Finance Director. His concern was whether the language could be in conflict with collective bargaining agreements. Section C7 – In this section, there is mention of Finance Director’s responsibility of maintaining a Town wide inventory control system. Mr. Scollins noted that there is currently not an inventory control system in place. Section D2 - He recommended adding private sector experience to the Finance Director job description. Section D3A – There is mention of the Finance Director’s responsibility of maintaining an inventory control system for items under the control of the School Committee that does not currently exist. Page | 1
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Section D3B – This section references procurement laws. Mr. Scollins questioned whether the language in the bylaw is in conflict with MGL. He would like bylaw clarified. Section E1 and 2 -He noted that these two sections, Office of Collections and Office of Treasury Management, are combined in practice and that should be reflected in the bylaw. Section E3 –He recommended that the name of the office in the bylaw be changed to Office of Accounting. Section E4 – Mr. Scollins suggested that the title Manager should be changed to Director. Ms. Kemalian noted that a title change would need to be discussed with Human Resources and the Select Board. If a title change was made, it would then be reflected in the bylaw. Section E – Mr. Scollins suggested adding an additional section describing the responsibility for maintaining information systems security in this section. Section F – He recommended removal of this section as it is not necessary. Article VII Part B Finance Committee Mr. Scollins recommended the name of the Finance Committee be changed to Advisory Committee and that the language be updated to reflect the current practices of the Committee. There was a discussion among members regarding these recommendations. Section 3 - He recommended reducing the amount of meetings a member can be absent from and still hold the position to five consecutive meetings. Section 6 – He recommended that this language needs clarification to reflect that if a member is abstaining from a vote that the vote not be recorded. Section 8 – Mr. Scollins recommended that the prior fiscal year reporting language needs to be clarified to reflect the current practices. He suggested that the section be moved to Finance Director/Town Accountant responsibilities. Section 9 – He recommended removal of this section as it is unnecessary. Article VIII Financial Regulation Section 2 – This section refers to information on tax bills. Mr. Scollins recommended that this section should be modified to reference MGL. Section 7 – Mr. Scollins noted that this section has no context and that language should be inserted in its place referencing compliance with all Massachusetts procurement laws. Section 8 – This section refers to bond requirements. Mr. Scollins noted that this section is driven by regulations in statutes. He recommended that bylaw language should reference MGL. Section 9 – Mr. Scollins noted that this section referring to audit of accounts contains outdated language and needs to be updated to reflect current practice. Mr. Comeau suggested that the section be moved to the power to where it belongs in the bylaws or if it exists under MGL the section could be eliminated from the bylaws. Section 10 – Mr. Scollins noted that this section should be replaced with the new language that is developed for Section 7 dealing with procurement. Section 12 – This section references a Pequitside fund that is in conflict with the provisions of the revolving funds in the bylaws and Mr. Scollins recommended it be eliminated. Section 13B – This section is regarding actions the town can take on licenses for non-payment of fees or taxes. Mr. Scollins noted that there were some exemptions in the language that he Page | 2
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was questioning. Ms. Kemalian noted that there is state statute with similar language that could be explored as an alternative to the current bylaw. Section 16 – He mentioned that this section is not in the current index but it is in the current bylaws. Mr. Comeau mentioned that General Code will find and recommend it be added to the new index. Mr. Comeau noted that he was going to contact the former Town Moderators to see if they would be interested in attending an upcoming meeting. No other members had any additional items to discuss at this time so the committee discussed the next meeting date. August 21, 2025 at 7 pm was selected as the next meeting date so Mr. Comeau will look to confirm the meeting space availability and notify the members. Seeing that all agenda items were completed, Mr. Comeau offered a motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Dr. Harrington and the motion was unanimously approved. The committee adjourned at 8:10 pm Respectfully submitted, _____________________________________ Jennifer Kemalian Page | 3