It would be a mistake to set term limits for the members of the volunteer boards, commissions and committees that help govern New Canaan or to impose restrictions on how long people can serve as chairmen of those groups, the town’s highest elected official said this week.
Looking toward Main Street from the northern side of Town Hall on April 28, 2016. Plantings from the New Canaan Beautification League. Credit: Michael Dinan
Citing opinions from some members of New Canaan’s legislative body, the Town Council, as well as a referral back to an appointed group that’s recommending changes to the town’s major governing document, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said to force rotating chairmanships would be a bad idea.
“I would caution the Town Council to tread very, very lightly on imposing limitations—from a body that does not have their own term limits—to talk about there being term limits with other groups,” Mallozzi said Tuesday during a Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall.
As it stands, the Town Charter sets no term limits on members of groups that include the selectmen, Park & Recreation Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, Town Council or Board of Finance, or on individuals such as the town clerk or treasurer—and the Charter Revision Commission recommended no changes in those areas in its draft report. The Charter Revision Commission’s recommendations vis-à-vis the Town Charter may go up for a town-wide vote during the general elections in November.
The commission does note in its report that members examined areas such as “the length of terms, limits on terms, as well as the process of election or appointment of Town officials.” In drafting a proposed new section of the Charter outlining the powers and duties of the Audit Committee, the commission proposed that its members “may serve for no more than three successive three-year terms or part thereof.” The commission also recommends terms of varying lengths for members of a proposed new Ethics Board.
Town Council members took up the discussion during a special meeting last week.
The selectmen during their meeting appeared more focused on the idea that term limits would be placed on chairmanships across the town’s various appointed bodies.
Some citizens sign up to spend the many hours it requires to serve on those groups with the idea that they may become chairman, while others like the idea of serving in a more supporting role, Mallozzi said.
“We want to always retain the ability to appoint the best and the brightest and I don’t think an outside group imposing limitations on who serves in what capacity is a good idea,” he said.
Selectman Beth Jones called the process by which the chairmen on town bodies change over “self-regulating.”
Each year during organizational meetings, the groups themselves elect their officers, Jones noted.
“So it’s self-regulated when people feel someone is not doing well, and why would you shoot yourself in the foot with someone who is phenomenal and say ‘You can’t do it anymore because your two years are up’?” she said.
Selectman Nick Williams noted that New Canaan’s boards and commissions are chaired by Democrats as well as Republicans.
“One of the concerns I have is there seems to be some sense that we have not reached out to new people to populate our commissions and our committees,” Williams said. “I think that’s dead wrong … I have never received single phone call from another elected official in town suggesting an individual for one of our board or commissions. Not one single phone call or email in five years.”
Mallozzi suggested that there “may be some new folks on the Town Council who are not up to speed on what the Board of Selectmen does and what we initiate.”
“The Board of Selectmen makes the appointments, it is not the first selectman who makes the appointments. We are not dictators. We work in conjunction with each other with getting the best and the brightest, and once we do that it truly should be up to commissions to make sure that those who are energized and competent step up and take on whatever roles.”