Weston Mulls Charter Revisions

Should Weston keep in place the provision in its charter that both the town clerk and tax collector be elected officials, or should one of those officials be appointed?

The Weston Charter Revision Commission recommended the town clerk be an elected position and the tax collector be an appointed position, but at a public hearing on the suggested revisions last week at , some members of the public expressed concern as to whether that the right thing to do. 

Ken Edgar, who alongside Selectman Dennis Tracey chairs the Charter Commission, told the Board of Selectmen (with Tracey recused) that this recommendation was "the most controversial" and "engendered the most comment." 

The commission, , had the most difficulty coming to a conclusion on this particular topic, Edgar said, so they compromised in order to pass their recommendations by a unanimous vote. 

“We met 35 times as a committee and we scrubbed every sentence of the charter," Edgar said, adding that despite the seven members of the commission coming from very different backgrounds and different political persuasions, the commission "managed to agree on every single one of our recommendations."

Edgar said the commission decided to keep the town clerk an elected position because the town has a "long tradition of elected town clerks." Most town clerks in Connecticut are elected, Edgar said, and town clerk's carry a "large portfolio of responsibilities."

In contrast, Edgar said, there's a trend where more and more tax collectors are be appointed.

Christine Lomuscio, who lives on Cannondale Road, said the argument she's heard which favors the commission's recommendation about appointing a tax collector centers around a hypothetical situation where the tax collector's office is vacant and none of Weston's citizens wanted the position at the time.

Lomuscio suggested should that be the case, the Board of Selectmen could have the authority to appoint an interim tax collector until the next election cycle. 

"As an elected office it has been working for many, many years—that deal of reinventing the wheel really bothers me," Lomuscio said. "That philosophy bothers me." 

Fred Rosen echoed her sentiments, adding that there "needs to be a good reason" to change the position to an elected one and that simply having a split decision by the commission isn't that reason. 

Other issues

Members of the public also expressed concern of having a quorum requirement for reducing line items from the budget at the Annual Town Budget Meeting, which has had extremely low turnout of late. Former Selectman Dan Gilbert said that people who take the time to participate should be able to have a say. 

"People who show up and vote—those individuals should make public policy, Gilbert said. "That’s how the system works."

Pat Heifetz suggested that the selectmen should considered expanding the Board of Selectmen to five members, as it's never been something that the voters have been allowed to directly vote on yet. 

"It was presented by the very first Charter Commission revision, which never came to a vote," she said.

Heifetz also suggested the town look into the possibility of creating an ombudsmen position to help settle potential disputes between two town boards. 

The independent third-party would be "better than having two attorneys settle [such a] dispute." 

The Board of Selectmen will discuss their take on the Charter Commission's revisions at their meeting tonight. While the selectmen have 15 days after the public hearing to decide on any changes, the official language that would appear on November's ballots has "no such deadline," according to Edgar.

First Selectman Gayle Weinstein thanked the members of the Charter Commission, who "worked so incredibly hard and put in so much time and effort."

"They did a magnificient job," she said.