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Want to be taken for a ride? |
At the time I expressed the view that the agenda
item proposed on the October
15 town council meeting agenda was not
properly formulated.
Yesterday I decided to follow up on this matter.
I sent the following email to Senator Richard Moore:
Dear
Senator Moore:
Earlier
this year the House and Senate passed and the Governor signed H. 4039 through
H. 4048 pertaining to a series of amendments to the Southbridge Home Rule
Charter.
Each
piece of legislation specified that ratification of each amendment would be
determined “at a regular or special town election to be held in the year 2012”.
At
a meeting of the Southbridge town council held on October 15, 2012, the council
adopted a motion which read, “Vote to amend Section 2 of the special
legislation for the 10 Articles adopted by the Legislature and approved by the
Governor and to change the year from 2012 to 2013 in conjunction with the
Town’s annual election of June 2013.”
Can
the town council amend the terms of legislation adopted by the legislature and
signed into law by the Governor? Wouldn’t such a change require the legislature
to approve amendments to the existing laws and have those amendments signed by
the Governor? Are any such amendments pending?
Looking
forward to your reply, I remain
Sincerely,
Kenneth M. O’Brien
In very short order I received the following reply:
Dear
Ken,
The
Legislature is in the process of amending the charter bills using the one
portion that was not acted upon and redrafting it to amend all of the bills to
allow 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 this
technical change.
Senator
Moore
I followed up by requesting a copy of the proposed
amendments. I received a response from Shawn Collins, the Senator’s chief of
staff:
Mr.
O’Brien –
Senator
Moore has asked that I send you a copy of the pending amendment to the
Southbridge charter bills to accommodate a special election in 2013 as opposed
to 2012.
Attached
is the amendment that is currently pending before the House Committee on Third
Reading. I’m not sure of their timeline
for consideration.
If
you have any additional questions, or require any additional information,
please don’t hesitate to ask.
Happy
Thanksgiving!
Shawn
The attached draft legislation is as follows:
FLOOR
AMENDMENT
Mr. Durant of Spencer moves that House No. 3900
be amended by substitution, in part, of a bill with a new title and with the
following new text:
“An
act making corrective changes to certain amendments to the town of Southbridge
charter.
SECTION 1.
Section 2 of chapter 264 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended by
striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting in
place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
2. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION 3.
Section 2 of chapter 265 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended by
striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting in
place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
4. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION 5.
Section 2 of chapter 266 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended by
striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting in
place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
6. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION
7. Section 2 of chapter 267 of the acts
of 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it
appears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
8. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION
9. Section 2 of chapter 268 of the acts
of 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it
appears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
10. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION
11. Section 2 of chapter 269 of the acts
of 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it
appears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
12. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION 13.
Section 2 of chapter 270 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended by
striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting in
place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
14. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION 15.
Section 2 of chapter 271 of the acts of 2012 is herby amended by
striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it appears, and inserting in
place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
16. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION 17. Section 2 of chapter 272 of the
acts of 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time
it appears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
18. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION
19. Section 2 of chapter 273 of the acts
of 2012 is herby amended by striking out the figure “2012”, the first time it
appears, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2013.
SECTION
20. Section 3 of said chapter is hereby
repealed.
SECTION
21. This act shall take effect upon its
passage.”
Now it is my
understanding that in matters of Home Rule legislation, a state legislator must
be acting at the request of the town.
However, as I pointed
out in my original
criticism of the agenda item at the October 15 meeting, “Oh My God! Read
agenda item 20:
20. Vote to amend
Section 2 of the special legislation for the 10 Articles adopted by the
Legislature and approved by the Governor and to change the year from 2012 to
2013 in conjunction with the Town’s annual election of June 2013.
Who wrote that?
The council, according
to this item, is going to take it upon itself to amend state laws.
The item should read:
20. Vote to request
State Representative Peter Durant to introduce legislation to amend section
2…(etc.)”
The town council,
however, adopted the agenda item as originally proposed.
This raises the
question “On what authority is Representative Durant acting?” The vote of the
Southbridge town council did not empower him to undertake this action on behalf
of the town.
Senator Moore noted, “The
town has indicated their approval of this technical change.”
How has the town
indicated their approval of this technical change? I have seen no subsequent
action by the council elaborating upon their original vote to amend the
legislation (which they had no power to do). Furthermore, the agenda item voted
by the town council specifically provided that the legislation be amended to
specify that the vote on the amendments be held “…in conjunction with the Town’s annual
election of June 2013.” This is not a condition embodied in the amendments
introduced by Representative Durant.
Is this another “administrative
action” by the town manager? If so it is an assumption of the legislative
authority of the council. While the council took a vote on an illegitimate
agenda item, it does not accord the town manager the authority to re-interpret
it as he sees fit.
But, once again I
suspect the public will care very little about the sloppy procedure of our town
government, even when they were advised of how to fix the problem before they
voted.
"Who wrote that?"
ReplyDelete"How has the town indicated their approval of this technical change?"
TM Clark’s (Shadow Councilor) verbally crafted the original lingo. It was also discussed and approved, @ CC’s suggestion, that he formalize/ address the issue directly with Governor Duval via postal mail.
I suspect a simple cc: to Rep. P. Durant got the ball rolling A.S.A.P.
Done Deal! Sound plausible?
Zotos says, once again ken displays his grasp of the
ReplyDeleteFacts , im sick of watching clarks tricks, who drives
The agendas? All they do is take care of themselves
The people of southbridge cant take much more!