First Budcom Meeting "in the can."
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The Budget Committee held its organizational meeting Thursday with little fanfare. While there was discussion about procedures and practices, in the end, it was agreed that last year's methods worked well and would be used again this year. Dick Hickok and John O'Brien were elected chair and vice chair respectively. The practice of raising one's hand and waiting for recognition by the chair will be more vigorously enforced.
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The topic of blogs and newspaper writings also came up. It was agreed that courtesy and politeness will rule the day during meetings (as if it ever wasn't) and members will be respectful of each other's opinions. Outside, well there really isn't much that can be done. It appeared nobody was willing to forego their free speech rights, which is how it should be. Dale Dormody announced his plans on adding a website of some sort to the mix. This is as it should be... the antidote to speech that might be found "disagreeable" is just that... more free speech.
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The only real controversy was raised by Dale Dormody himself-- that being whether, as the spouse of the Library Director, he should recuse himself from votes relating to her department. He announced that he will NOT abstain from such votes. I believe he is within the law on that one... but maybe not within what is "the right thing to do."
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The RSA covering budget committee membership says this:
32:15,V. No selectman, town manager, member of the school board, village district commissioner, full-time employee, or part-time department head of the town, school district or village district or other associated agency shall serve as a member-at-large.
It doesn't preclude "spouses" of those in the above list, but obviously intends the committee to be made up of citizens unattached to the town or school. One can wonder how someone married to such persons can be wholley unbiased in certain matters directly related to their particular interest. At the end of the day, the question of what is proper, absent specific law, becomes a political question, to be solved in the political arena (the ballot box). We'll all have to watch as the process unfolds. If I were Dale, I would simply abstain, for appearance and perception reasons, on library matters before the committee. But I'm not Dale...
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Click here to read Cutter Mitchell's Citizen article about the meeting.
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