Council approves subcommittee consolidation

The town council approved consolidating several of its subcommittees at last week’s meeting.

The consolidation brings the number of standing subcommittees for the council down to four from seven.

The finance subcommittee and the rules and ordinance subcommittee will both stay as they were, according to Council President Jim Letterie.

The vote consolidated the public health and safety and the public works subcommittees into one subcommittee. The capital assets, economic development, and appointments subcommittees were also consolidated into a single subcommittee.

“My reasoning for this is that last year … we had seven committees and the abundance of those committee meetings were finance and rules and ordinance,” said Letterie. “We also had approaching 30 subcommittee meetings last year and I believe we had minutes from two. That is going to stop.”

To help with the minutes, Letterie said he created a simple form for the committee chairs.

“You just have to write down the basic information so people understand, and these can be posted within a day or two of a meeting,” he said. “That’s another reason why I am trying to consolidate to four committees so it makes the process a little bit easier and so it wouldn’t dilute the time of the councilors.”

Under the new alignment, there will be four subcommittees, each with three members, so each councilor would serve on either one or two subcommittees, according to Letterie.

“I would hope to see the subcommittees meet on a time other than half an hour before a council meeting so they get the time they deserve and be vetted out,” said Letterie.

In other business, Letterie said the council will continue to take applications for the vacant Precinct 6 council seat up until the next council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17.