I believe if Selectmen meet they should record  minutes and at a minimum these should include, the topics discussed, matters addressed in reasonable detail and indicate persons in attendance.  Having minutes of discussion, action and decision can help protect the town in legal matters and also explain the reasoning for taking a particular course of action now and also to others days, weeks, months and years from now. Minutes are also one of the only tools at the Selectman’s disposal to communicate there work to the residents as well as Selectmen whom may have been absent from a meeting. Detailed minutes also provide the chronology of events so you can demonstrate courses of action and avoid he said, she said, discussion that occurs repeatedly at meetings.

I have sit on many Safety Committees and Project Committees in my life. Minutes were always used as the core tool to manage committee business and action items as well as share the Committees progress on same. It’s my opinion Town business is no different and if anything Town minutes should provide greater disclosure of detail not less.  If you compare Lebanon’s minutes to say Wells or Berwick you will see what I mean by the Old / New business philosophy and the detail they include. We compare ourselves to these towns in many other ways why should administrative minutes be any different.

The Selectmen could simply institute policy and start maintaining minutes and improving on them on their own but that would appear unlikely. To require it, a referendum would need to be created and added to the ballot.

What do you think…  Am I way off base in my thinking?

My sense is that our Selectmen are sincere and trying their darnedest to manage things. They are regular people like you and I, trying to oversee the affairs of the town but they’re hindered by inaccurate reporting, changing of accounting methods and mainly by not having any kind of operating procedure or bid framework to work within. Therefore, even with all the good faith effort they put forth, and the greatest intentions they operate with, they wind up to a spinning their wheels or being hoodwinked.

Two additional people could help the process by providing diversity of opinion, splitting of the work load, bring more oversight through improved availability and involvement. They also need a Charter and Operating manual or procedures that details this is how they do business. Any ISO certified company has this type of structure why wouldn’t a town as a minimum have a “ISO light” version?

I believe if we had improved oversight and procedures the Selectmen could operate with improved accuracy. The town would have never had the accounting fiasco over the recent years leading to our tax increase, it likely would have been caught much sooner.  Issues like the recent timber harvesting (“Timbergate”) could be avoided.  What do you think? Please vote and share you’re thoughts by clicking comment.

“Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can’t have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. ”
Larry Flynt