Boothbay Harbor Town Seal

General Information

Boothbay Harbor Selectmen Rules and Procedures

Adopted by BOS 7/25/11

 

Preamble:

Maine courts have held that municipal boards have inherent authority to adopt reasonable rules of procedure 1 and MMA further states it is advisable for all boards to adopt written rules of procedure. 

Our specific goal is to develop written procedures to improve our operations by improving communications both among the selectmen and between the selectmen and the town manager, while strictly adhering to Maine’s open meeting laws.  These written procedures also seek to improve the consistency of our response to recurring situations.

To help meet this goal we adopt the following.

Rules and Procedures

  1. Email Procedures:

    1. Emails among Selectmen shall be limited to reporting factual information only; agendas, minutes, schedules and reports are suitable for email distribution; opinions, positions, back and forth dialog and/or response (other than for scheduling or similar administrative issues) are not permitted.

    2. Emails sent to more than one other Selectmen shall be sent to ALL Selectmen and the Town Manager.

    3. All emails among Selectmen are public documents potentially subject to viewing and redistribution under Maine laws. 

  2. Meeting Agenda

    1. In addition to the standard agenda distributed to the press by the Town Manager, on the Friday before each meeting, the Vice Chair shall distribute a list of the specific topics likely to be discussed at the meeting.  This will allow the Selectman to adequately prepare for the meeting.

  3. Communications

    1. Any inquiry or request made to an individual Selectman or the Town Manager that is likely to result a town response beyond the normal administrative routine should be reported to the full board and the Town Manager as soon as practical.  A simple email reporting the interaction would suffice.  The intent of this provision is to keep everyone informed as to “what is going on in town” so that no one gets surprised.

       

  4. Engaging the town attorney

    1. The town attorney may be engaged at the request of any Selectman or the Town Manager.  All such requests will flow through the Town Manager, who will formulate a written request to the attorney with copies provided to all.

  5. Meeting conduct

    1. Selectman meetings will be guided by Roberts’s rules, but will remain flexible in order to best conduct business in an open, polite and productive manner.

    2. No town business is to be conducted once the meeting is adjourned.