Ordinance Review Committee Notes

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The meeting began at 6:00 p.m., with the following in attendance: Town Manager Eugene Conlogue, Priscilla Monroe, Donna Barnard, Councilor Tortello, Councilor Cloney, Police Chief Butch Asselin, Code Enforcement Officer Kevin Tingley, Town Clerk/Asst. Town Manager Cathy O’Leary.

It was agreed that Priscilla Monroe would serve as Chairperson and Cathy O’Leary would serve as Secretary.

Attached is a copy of an agenda that Priscilla Monroe had presented to the Town Manager. From that, it was agreed that the meetings would be informal; one ordinance at a time would be reviewed by all; once changes are agreed on updates to the current ordinances will be done by the Town Clerk; majority approval from the Committee on each ordinance before presenting to the Council.

There was discussion on the order of the ordinances to be reviewed. It was agreed to begin with those that were in more need of updating than others.

The meetings will be on Wednesdays, starting out with a couple times a month. The next meeting will be on October 16, 2013, at 6:00 PM.

It was explained that the process for ordinance changes is as follows: once the changes are in place by the committee, the Town Attorney has to review for legality, and then the process begins with the Council. That process takes 3 meetings that includean introduction, first reading, and then advertised for a public hearing and Council vote.

Ms. Monroe suggested that the notes of these meetings be listed on the website.

Chief Asselin spoke to ordinance changes that he had been involved with in the past and currently has changes ready to go on some issues.

It was also agreed that the first ordinance to review will be the Taxi Ordinance. It has been a lot of years since this has been looked at and has been in need of updating. The next ordinance to be reviewed will be decided once the first review is completed.

Ms. Monroe noted that she had some new ordinances to be reviewed.

There was some discussion on what the Town currently has for a Taxi Ordinance and Chief Asselin spoke to what may or may not be important to change. He said that with any ordinance we can’t be too restrictive to impair business but can regulate.

Copies of Chief Asselin’s changes and a sample Taxi ordinance from another community will be mailed out ahead of the next meeting.

The meeting ended at 7:05 pm.