1996-05-21 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR
MEETING OF THE
BEVERLY ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE
The regular meeting of the Beverly Ordinance Review Committee was held
on Tuesday evening, May 21, 1996, in the Council Committee Room, City Hall,
Beverly, MA.
PRESENT: Crystal Atherton, Arthur Powell, Mary Grant and Ehsabeth LeBnm.
ABSENT: Thomas Alexunder, Roy Gelineau, and Jerry Parisella.
Attorney Curran joined us for the meeting and provided the Committee with several
draft ordinances for our review.
Crystal Atherton pointed out to the members that the Ordinance relative to the
Finance Depmhnent ( which is one of the new departments organized in the Charter
under Article 5 and one of the ordinances that we are directed by the Charter to
address directly) is not in conformity with the Mayor' s Organizational Chart as
presented to the Council in that (1) the Charter places the position of Procurement
Officer under the Finance Department and the Mayor has designated a separate
depmhnent as the Contract Management Department, and (2) the Charter creates a
Human Service Department of equal stature and importance as the Finance Dept and
the Planning and Economic Development Department and the Mayor's
organizational chart places that important department as a sub-department function
of the Planning/Economic Dept.
Crystal told the Committee that she finds this extremely disturbing and feels that we
cannot draft ordinances that effect the organiTational structure that does not mirror
the Mayor's Organizational Structure. Some discussion followed as to when this
new organiTation structure would take effect. The Committee believes that it would
become effective June 15 if the Council does not act and reject the structure as
presented to them. At this date, there has not been a public hearing and none has
been set that we are aware of.
The members discussed this dilemma and it was the consensus of the group that we
had a mandate set forth in the Charter under Sec. 9-6 (1) which states that our
purpose is "to prepare suggested revisions to bring the ordinances of the city into
conformity with and to fully implement the provisions of the charter". That these
suggested ordinances are then submitted to the Mayor with recommendations from
the Committee and it was his decision to pursue their enactment or not.
Crystal also suggested that we could work on parallel projects: (1) one being the
task of reviewing our presenting ordinances setting forth each section that no longer
is applicable and/or needs to be amended; and (2) at the same time to draft new
ordinances for the review and acceptance of the Mayor and Council.
All of the other members present felt that the first task was a waste of time as the
present Ordinances are poorly organized; the subject matters are scattered
throughout the ordinance book making it difficult to find appropriate information;
sections are not properly placed in the most logical part of the ordinance book. Time
was of the essence as we have already lost four months pursuing the appropriation
to engage the services of a drafter. We now have that person and we should get on
with our task.
It was also pointed out by Atty Curran that he fully set forth in his letter, which was
submitted to the Mayor with our letter requesting funding, the work he perceived
needed to be done to bring the ordinances into conformity with the Charter including
drafting of new ordinances. Atty Curran pointed out in that letter that "a proper
revision of the existing city ordinances will encompass revisions of every ordinance
dealing with the administration of the city government". The Mayor recommended
and the Council funded his fee to perform this service.
It was suggested that we attempt to get some feedback from the Council and the
Mayor' s office by giving them some of the materials we are working on and asking
for their impute. Also to provide the Mayor with infomnation conceming the fact
that the Committee is drafting ordinances that conflict with his organizational
structure as presented especially as to the Human Services Depmm~ent and the
procurement officer.
Atty Curran will prepare for our next meeting a Table of Contents for the
Committee' s review. This table of contents will be set up to parallel our new
Charter with the sections flushing out ordinances in each Article of the Charter
be~nning with Legislative Branch (the ordinance concerning the Coancil's rules and
procedures would fit in this section); a section on Multiple Member Bodies and their
duties and ~mctions; the Executive Branch; the five new depa~hnents etc.
Adjourned at 9:40 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
C~Atherton~~