Ann & Mark reject review for best practices by former selectmen

At my request the Board of Selectmen constituted the town’s former selectmen as a Board of Advisers, so that the town could continue to benefit from the depth of knowledge and understanding of municipal governments that they had acquired as selectmen.  Last night I suggested that the Board of Selectmen ask that group to review how we operate the town departments, to make sure that we were using the best practices and the town was being well served in all instances.

Ann and Mark rejected doing so, for the same stated reason, that the former selectmen had been gone too long from town government to still have any useful information.  Too bad, as it is a real lost opportunity for the town.

This was my email to the former selectmen to ask them if they would consider serving in the capacity I envisioned –

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John, Richard, Ed, Harry, and Paul,

I do not know if Mike Sullivan ever informed you, but at my request, the Board of Selectmen appointed all the town’s former selectmen to a Board of Advisers, in an effort to harness and take advantage of all that you learned as a result of being selectmen.  My thought was that there was so much learning and institutional memory that happens from being a selectman, that the Town of Medfield should try to make use of those skills that you developed.

Mike and I have talked about asking you to look at the issue of the town’s liability for post employment benefits for medical care, which the actuaries say is something like a $40m. liability number for Medfield, but a state appointed commission is looking into that issue on a state wide basis now (given that every city and town in the state is hugely effected) and they are supposed to report back some time this fall, so we thought it best to hear what the commission says first.

The second task that has occurred to me to ask you all to do, and one that I am going to ask at our selectmen meeting next Tuesday be delegated to your Board of Advisers, is that we ask you to do a top to bottom review of the policies and procedures of every town department, so that we can be assured that the town is using the best practices that are available.  I could envision you meeting with someone like Medfield resident Jeremy Marsette, who is the town engineer for Framingham and the chair of our Water & Sewer Board, to learn what he has seen done elsewhere, and then meet with Ken to see if we are doing those things.  Similarly with Rachel Brown of the Personnel Board, whose consulting practice has her dealing with towns all over the state.

This is the item that I have put on the agenda:

Referral by the Board of Selectmen to our Board of Advisers (comprised of all former selectmen) the request that they conduct a top to bottom review of the policies and procedures of all town departments, to see if Medfield is using best practices, and to report back to the Board of Selectmen on their findings and to recommend what changes should be made, if any.

Please feel free to join the Board of Selectmen at our meeting next Tuesday evening when I will be asking Ann and Mark to join me in asking you to undertake this task and to discuss any details.

BTW, I asked Sandra Muncey about this idea of a council of former selectmen, and she had no interest in participating.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Pete

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Ann and Mark indicated that they were willing to entertain future discrete tasks being assigned to the former selectmen to perform.