Town Meeting Gets Down To Business

     Voters packed the Beth Bourne Auditorium on the first night of Bourne’s Town Meeting, many of them clearly present specifically to vote on a proposed amendment to Bourne’s noise bylaw.
     That amendment, rejected overwhelmingly by voters, would have required bars or restaurants with entertainment licenses to keep their noise from being audible more than 150 feet from the edge of their premises, with a permitting process for outdoor weddings and similar special events.
     While discussion of the noise issue had sometimes become contentious over the past months, by the time the proposal reached Town Meeting floor, officials had taken steps toward a more comprehensive re-write of that bylaw.
     Kelly M. Morley of Cataumet, one of the sponsors of the measure, told Town Meeting attendees that the bylaw amendment had never been intended to be anti-business, just to create a mechanism that would allow police officers and other town officials to deal effectively with excessive noise.
     Now, Ms. Morley said, the town owns a decibel meter. Police could measure and control noise levels under federal health and safety law, if need be. Also, the selectmen’s office would be logging in complaints, she said.
     Ms. Morley also said she believes that the town’s Bylaw Committee and selectmen would, as promised, bring a more comprehensive re-write of the bylaw, one balanced carefully between the needs of the public and town businesses, to Fall Town Meeting.
     Bourne’s Annual Town Meeting was convened shortly after 7:30 PM with 318 voters checked in, more than the necessary quorum of 200.
     At 8 PM, after Town Moderator Robert W. Parady had reviewed Town Meeting rules and procedures, the Annual Town Meeting was recessed and the Special Town Meeting convened. At that time, there were 439 voters present.
     The noise bylaw article was the first one on the Special Town Meeting warrant, but Bourne draws lots to determine the order in which Town Meeting articles will be addressed.
     As luck would have it, the noise bylaw amendment was drawn last, 11th out of 11 articles, prompting a few meeting attendees to joke that the drawing had been rigged, insuring that they would remain throughout the whole of the Special’s warrant.
     After the noise bylaw article was drawn, finance committee member Marilyn Morris told meeting attendees that FinCom had voted to indefinitely postpone the article, effectively voting against it.
     Ms. Morris, who is also chairman of the town’s Bylaw Committee, said, however, that the issue of noise would not be ignored and a revised, modern bylaw would be forthcoming.
     After Ms. Morley spoke in support of the town’s efforts, voters voiced their rejection of the amendment. That rejection was clear, but not unanimous.
     After the vote, Peter Fisher, a Cataumet businessman, quickly rose and gave notice that a motion for reconsideration might be forthcoming.
     A motion for reconsideration can only be made by someone who voted in favor of the original proposition. By Town Meeting rules, notice that someone might be asking for reconsideration must be made within an hour of the announcement of the vote on the motion. Once notice has been given, however, the actual motion can be made at any time during the meeting.
     Since the Special Town Meeting was just about to be adjourned, however, Mr. Parady said the motion to reconsider would have to be made immediately. The reconsideration could not be brought up once the Annual Town Meeting resumed. Mr. Fisher then withdrew his notice, one admittedly done as much to forestall an exodus of voters from the room as to support the article, and the vote against the amendment stood.
     While the noise bylaw amendment article brought a number of residents to Town Meeting, many of whom left after the vote, it was not the most discussed article at the Special Town Meeting.
     Bylaw Committee Composition
     Voters approved an article that expanded the Bylaw Committee from five members to seven. An amendment proposed during Town Meeting would have ensured that two of the seven members were from the finance committee and two from the planning board, rather than one representative from each of those committees, leaving three at-large members.
     After considerable discussion as to whether a broader representation by the public would be better, the article passed as it was written in the handbook. Ms. Morris, whose retirement from the finance committee was announced at the meeting, said she hoped to be named one of the newly expanded committee’s five at-large members.
     Transfer From Health Insurance Account
     A third much-discussed article, one which passed, albeit not unanimously, transfers $273,000 that was budgeted for Fiscal Year 2008, but unused, from the Group Insurance Account, to be used for snow and ice bills from last winter and to help the assessor’s office with the mandatory property revaluation required this year.
     FinCom members heard prior to Town Meeting that the assessors had already valued some 10,000 properties in-house, but needed extra help to complete about 2,500 more properties in a timely fashion.
     Discussion of this article did not center so much on the use of the monies, but its source. John A. Johnson of Pocasset and Richard E. Lafarge of Gray Gables questioned whether those monies were a part of the town’s 75 percent share of healthcare costs, and thus should not be used for other purposes.
     Mr. Johnson raised the legality of the use under state law and Mr. Lafarge suggested that town employees might be paying more than their bargained-for 25 percent of healthcare costs.
     Town Treasurer Karen E. Girouard rose to say that she had been working with the town’s healthcare account for 21 years, and that the town paid its share of the costs, the employees theirs, and there were no illegalities. Town Counsel Robert S. Troy told voters the transfer, as set out in the article, would be legal under the law.
     When selectmen had previously asked for an explanation as to how the self-insurance system works, they heard that the health care bills and costs are split 75/25, with the town paying the larger share.
     An estimated amount of money is deducted from employees’ paychecks to cover their share. That employee money is held in trust and never used for any purpose but healthcare costs.  The town, in turn, budgets money for its share and also keeps a dedicated fund containing four months of average costs.
     If the employees’ trust fund becomes too large, employees are given a “holiday” from paying their insurance “premium.”  
     If, as happened this year, there is more money budgeted for current healthcare expenses than needed, and the town has adequate reserves in its dedicated fund, town officials assert that the unused money can legally be returned to the general operating account to be used where necessary.
     Ms. Girouard said the monies whose transfer voters were being asked to approve were not in either the town’s reserve or the employees’ trust fund, reminding voters that all of the accounts were audited annually.
     Noting that meeting attendees had already heard from two attorneys, town counsel, the town administrator, the finance director, and the treasurer, James A. Mulvey of Buzzards Bay stood up to say it was time to vote.
     The transfer article passed, but not unanimously, by voice vote.
     Other Special TM Action
     Before the Special Town Meeting was adjourned and the Annual Town Meeting reconvened, voters:
     * approved, 464 to 0, an article transferring $650,000 from free cash to the town’s stabilization account, a fund that requires a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting to use.
     * approved the use of $40,000 in landfill enterprise fund earnings for an operational study of that department’s operation, something described by FinCom Chairman Hal DeWaltoff Jr. as a good business practice.
     * approved the payment of $34,545 in bills received after the close of the fiscal year in which they were incurred. One wag voted no in the voice vote, forcing an exact count, since the article required a 9/10ths vote for approval. The article passed 433 to 0, prompting a few quiet comments  such as “coward” from meeting attendees, since whoever called out did not stand up in opposition.
     * amended the vote made at the 2007 Annual Town Meeting to add $10,000 to the amount previously voted to pay for a pump-out boat since the bids for that boat came in higher than expected.
     * voted to approve the use of $110,000 from the Waterways Account for a new patrol boat.
     * voted 440 to 0 to transfer one-sixth of an acre of land from town control to the control of the Buzzards Bay Water District.
     * approved the use of $35,000 so that selectmen could hire consultants to work with the town planner toward the implementation of some of the town’s recently completed studies and plans, including the Open Space and Recreation Plan, Affordable Housing Plan and Long-Term Comprehensive Plan.
     * allowed the use of $10,000 to pay for the consultants to help the planning board begin to update the town’s zoning bylaws.