Citizen fires barrage of better government proposals at Town officials
Published on February 21st, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - Franklin Street resident John DeGeorge let loose a salvo of proposed Annual Town Meeting articles at the last Selectmen’s meeting under the banner of Citizens for More Effective Government.
“I wanted a feel from the Board whether my ideas were valid enough for them to get behind,” DeGeorge said after the Feb. 13 meeting.
DeGeorge came before the Board and asked if they would support articles in 10 subject areas ranging from body art to town meeting voting procedures. He presented the list of subjects to the Selectmen on Feb. 13 and then asked if he could explain what he wanted them to do about each issue.
Selectmen told DeGeorge that they would need time to consider his ideas.
“John has good ideas, but he knows the process,” said Selectman Darin Leahy after the meeting. “We need time to fully investigate those ideas.”
During the session — held in a Town Hall Auditorium crowded with people awaiting the School Department budget discussion — Selectman Al Conti said that DeGeorge would have no problem getting signatures to place the proposals on the 2001 Town Meeting warrant as citizen’s petitions. For an annual town meeting only 10 signatures are needed.
“It looks better [to voters] if the article is sponsored by the Selectmen instead of this guy DeGeorge,” DeGeorge re-sponded, but he conceded.
His ideas were not discussed at the meeting, but he summarized some of them in a separate interview:
1. Body Art. He says that he wants to confine body piercing and tattooing businesses to specific districts under local zoning, similar to how the Town restricts adult entertainment.
2. Town Administrator (TA) — Residency Requirement. DeGeorge says that he is not comfortable with the Selectmen approving a policy to require the TA to live in Stoneham because, in his opinion, it contradicts the Town Administrator Act passed by Town Meeting and approved by the State.
(Selectmen note that the Town Meeting to which DeGeorge refers did approve a residency requirement, but the section was omitted for unknown reasons in the version approved by the State. And Town Counsel Bill Solomon has advised the Selectmen that their policy does not contradict the law.)
3. TA — Appointment by Board of Selectmen. DeGeorge says that he wants the Town to require more than a simple majority vote of the Board to appoint a TA.
4. TA — Vacancy DeGeorge says that the duties, powers and limitations of power of acting or temporary town administrators should be spelled out in the Town Code.
5. TA — Absence. DeGeorge says that he wants the Selectmen to prepare a working list of qualified town employees from which the TA will appoint his substitute when the TA is sick or on vacation.
6. Board of Selectmen — Membership. DeGeorge wouldn’t comment.
7. Board of Selectmen — Member Removed for Cause. Mention of Selectmen should be deleted from the section of the Town Code (Chapter 2, Article VI) speaking about removing appointed members for cause because the Selectmen are elected, DeGeorge says.
8. Committees — Establishment and Accountability. DeGeorge says that the Town Code is out of date, reflecting some committees that no longer exist and not mentioning other existing committees. He wants the Town to update the bylaw.
9. TA — Personnel Bylaw. Under the Town Code the TA is supposed to update the personnel bylaw annually. But based on the fact that a change to the bylaw requires Town Meeting approval, DeGeorge views the requirement placed upon the TA as unrealistic and says that he wants it deleted from the law.
10. Town Meeting — Poll Voting. DeGeorge says that he wants to institute a two phase Town Meeting. In phase one all the articles would be discussed and amended on the floor of Town Meeting as usual. But in phase two, citizens would cast the final vote on all articles in a secret ballot election at the polls sometime after the meeting.
As of press time, DeGeorge had not decided which proposals he would back as citizen’s petitions for the May Town Meeting.
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