Town of Mansfield

Personnel Committee

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Audrey Beck Municipal Building, Conference Room B

Members Present: Deputy Mayor Gregg Haddad, Councilor Helen Koehn

Staff Present: Maria Capriola, Assistant to Town Manager, Matt Hart, Town Manager, Mary Stanton, Town Clerk

1. CALL TO ORDER

The meeting came to order at 6:45 p.m.

2. MINUTES

The minutes of March 4, 2008 were passed unanimously with one noted correction.

3. RULES OF PROCEDURE

Ms. Koehn offered suggestions for the Council Rules of Procedure:

• Move the Town Manager’s Report up on the agenda
• Have the consent agenda near the end of the agenda
• Recurring agenda items should have an “end date” and be up for re-approval (i.e. water/wastewater issues, community campus relations)
• Standing committees
• Receive Council packets earlier i.e. a Wednesday or Thursday in the week preceding a Council meeting so Council has more time to review. If the timeline is bumped up, a provision could be included to add agenda items that pop up after the packets have been distributed.

Mr. Haddad and Mr. Hart concurred with moving the Town Manager’s Report up on the agenda. Ms. Koehn suggested that it be moved in front of old business. Mr. Haddad agreed with Ms. Koehn that recurring agenda items should have an end date and be up for re-approval. Mr. Haddad stated that he is not in favor of a consent agenda and Ms. Koehn was okay with that.

Ms. Koehn discussed the process in Norwich for citizens to petition Council in writing for public discussion (on a particular topic) as a future agenda item. The group then discussed various means in which citizens could communicate with Council (i.e. public comment, writing, etc.)

The group discussed setting the agenda i.e. who and how it should be set. Mr. Haddad offered a suggestion that three Council members be involved with setting the agenda with the Town Manager: the Mayor, one member from the majority party and one member from the minority. It was agreed that further discussion on setting the agenda is needed.

Ms. Koehn suggested that a review of existing committees may be in order. Some new committees may need to be created and some existing committees may no longer be needed. Discussion occurred regarding the merits of a program review and development committee, particularly Council’s role in program evaluation. Mr. Haddad suggested and the group discussed that one way for Council to be involved with program evaluation would be to give direction as to which programs or ordinances they would be interested in having reviewed.

Mr. Hart noted that a few communities in Connecticut have switched to one evening and one day meeting each month as a means to try and reach a wider group of citizens. Mr. Hart suggested that it may be helpful to have one Council meeting be for routine business and the second of the month to serve as workshop on an issue of interest to the Council.

Ms. Stanton reviewed the public comment section in the draft rules of procedure. Mr. Haddad and Ms. Koehn concurred that public comment should be limited to five minutes per person and not limited to items specifically on the agenda.

The group agreed to meet again to further discuss rules of procedure on May 22, 2008.

4. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 8:00pm.