RATIONALE

Why Change Anything?

The Blue Ribbon Governance Committee believes that Groton has "grown out" of its current form of government and that the changes that is has proposed – adopting a Charter and hiring a Town Manager – will make our local government work better. Town government is a large and diverse organization that spends or controls upwards of $40 million dollars each year. Such a large organization can no longer be effectively managed on a part-time basis by well-meaning elected and appointed officials acting semi-autonomously. We need a professional, accountable, approach to managing and administering the increasingly complex day-to-day work and business of government; we also need the tools and technology to make sure that the work gets done as efficiently as possible.

Our present form of government relies on a Board of Selectmen to set policy and manage the Town’s affairs on a part-time basis. This worked well when Groton was smaller, but the size of the Town and overall complexity of government have grown to surpass the limits of its effectiveness. One way to view the current situation is to imagine a $40 million enterprise with a policy-making Board of Directors that meets occasionally, a variety of Department Managers focusing on the day-to-day management of their departments, but no chief executive (e.g., a President) to provide the integrative management, administration, leadership and resource planning that every complex organization requires. Yet, that is exactly the situation that the Town finds itself in: the elected Board of Selectmen acts much like a Board of Directors, setting policy in conformance with the wishes of the community; our various department heads do a fine job of managing their respective departments, but cannot, on their own or as a group, readily or efficiently rationalize their particular departmental needs with the financial constraints and long term needs and initiatives of the Town.

The changes being proposed include installing a Town Manager. The proposal does NOT change the role of Town Meeting or the way it is structured: open Town Meeting is retained in its present form and townspeople continue to have the final say on spending, by-laws, capital acquisitions and other matters. A "representative town meeting" form of government is NOT being proposed, nor is there any change to the policy-making role of the Board of Selectmen, who will also still have the final say on all critical decisions, including hiring and appointments.

What is the Big Picture?

The Blue Ribbon Governance Committee saw their principal objective as putting in place a management structure that makes town government more efficient, accountable and accessible, while retaining checks and balances that rigorously sustain our traditions of transparency and democracy. The Town Manager will administer and manage the work of the Town; the Selectmen and townspeople, through the democratic processes of elections and open Town Meetings, will set Town policy.

One objective was to provide a clear management structure that provides accountability and efficiency in the use of town funds and resources. There are many instances in our present municipal organization where the "line of accountability" or "reporting structure" is unclear. For example, people that "report to an elected board" are sometimes micromanaged by their elected boards and in other cases are largely on their own (self-managed). Furthermore, elected officials are rarely elected for their management skills and, even if they are good managers, they can only participate in making board-level decisions and cannot act as individuals to make administrative and management decisions. Under the proposed structure ALL town employees will report administratively to the Town Manager – elected boards will set policy and the Town Manager will administer municipal resources in accordance with those policies. The Town Manager will have the skills required to manage the day-to-day affairs of the town and will provide all municipal employees with a clear reporting structure and consistent support and direction.

Another objective was to provide a rationale for distinguishing between elected and appointed positions. Based on input from many sources, the Committee decided that policy-setting boards should be elected, whereas boards and positions whose function is principally administrative, or that require specialized technical or other knowledge or expertise, should be appointed.

Finally, the Town needs to modernize in several ways to make information more accessible and easier to understand. Some of this modernization involves technology, but some of it merely involves adopting procedures that other towns have proven to be effective.

Recognizing that change is always difficult, and that piecemeal changes over a long period of time are even more difficult, the committee felt that it was best to recommend a comprehensive set of changes to town government. The resulting proposed Charter was carefully implemented to achieve efficiency, accountability and accessibility, while retaining a variety of necessary checks and balances.