Voters at Town Meeting this April will be asked to consider several specific changes to town government, completely separate from the larger question of whether Harvard should set up a commission or committee to draft a town charter.
Give more authority to town administrator
One proposal gives the town administrator more authority over personnel, the budget process, and approving the payroll and bills. If approved by voters at both Town Meeting and Town Election, that measure would then be sent to the state Legislature as a home-rule petition. Once approved, a process that can take from six months to more than a year, the measure is signed by the governor and becomes law.
The changes in this proposal were recommended by a working group assembled by Town Administrator Tim Bragan and chaired by Town Moderator Bob Eubank. The purpose of the changes, according to the group’s report, is to make town government more efficient and to allow the selectmen to focus on policymaking rather than daily operations.
Under the existing law, the selectmen can grant the town administrator power to appoint all town employees under the selectmen’s jurisdiction with the exception of department heads—the police and fire chiefs, the finance director, the Department of Public Works director, the Council on Aging director, the ambulance director, town counsel, and the treasurer–tax collector.
According to a draft version of the new measure, the selectmen will ask voters to approve giving the administrator power to appoint those department heads as well. The Board of Selectmen, however, would retain the power to confirm those appointments. (Department heads and employees of the schools, the library, and Parks and Recreation are not affected by these changes, as they report to other elected boards, not the selectmen.)
The town administrator, rather than the Board of Selectmen, would also have the power to discipline employees under the selectmen’s jurisdiction.
The proposed law would also give the town administrator authority to approve payroll and vendor warrants. Currently, a majority of the selectmen must sign the warrants before the treasurer can make payments. The administrator would also approve budget and capital requests for all departments under the selectmen’s jurisdiction. Only after the administrator’s approval would the budgets go to the selectmen and then on to the finance or capital committees.
Making town clerk and constable appointed offices
Two additional warrant articles will ask town meeting voters to makes the offices of town clerk and town constable appointed positions, rather than elected ones. In each case, the change would not take effect until the term of the current officeholder expires in 2018.
Under state law, neither of these changes requires a home-rule petition, according to Michael Ward of the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston. However, the law says the changes must also be approved by voters at the annual Town Election.
