Representatives of Rochester town departments and boards met Tuesday night to review the new policy on access to Town Counsel, section by section, to iron out the concerns of some board members.
Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson conducted the paragraph-by-paragraph review after Select Board Chairman Woody Hartley said the meeting had been scheduled to come up with solutions to board members’ problems with the document as the town works to revise it.
Attorney Jay Talerman of new Town Counsel Mead, Talerman & Costa, LLC, provided the answers to concerns that focused on who can directly access town counsel for the answers to important legal questions and whether new procedures will slow down critical response times.
The first question came from Conservation Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior, who asked what is the target number or limit for queries that boards can send to legal counsel.
Talerman said his law firm will not be billing the town by the hour. The town will pay a flat fee every month. That fee will be altered only if his firm becomes flooded with legal queries every day and is higher than the usual flow of work expected.
Talerman noted two of his firm’s attorneys are Rochester residents, and a town counsel attorney will be available at Town Hall every Monday, a reference to the fact that the former Town Counsel Blair Bailey worked out of a Town Hall office and was regularly available.
The new document reads that all requests for Town Counsel’s help be managed through the town administrator. Also, “every effort shall be made to answer routine legal questions independently,” it reads. Talerman said that means board professionals should be able to answer simple legal questions on their own.
Once the initial request for a legal opinion has been granted by the town administrator, contact for that issue if it is ongoing can be direct, meeting attendees learned.
Town Administrator Glenn Cannon asked what if he himself ever became the legal problem needing Town Counsel’s opinion. Talerman said then the Select Board could make the direct town-counsel contact.
To the question of how fast a board can get a quick answer to an important legal question in an emergency, Talerman said it should be easy to email Cannon, who would forward the request right away to Mead, Talerman and Costa, LLC. Then his firm will respond promptly to any last-minute emergency request. “We’ll make sure you get the answers,” he said. “We will never leave you in the lurch.”
Johnson said he had a big problem with the provision that reads a board’s requests for legal opinion must be by a majority vote of that board. “This will drag out the process even more,” he said.
“I would have to wait for the next meeting and have eight people agree,” fellow Planning Board member Ben Bailey said. “I would like to have this whole bullet point struck.”
“I don’t want to wait for a majority vote all the time,” Johnson said.
Talerman said this provision could be expanded to include the board chair. He added that board staff, such as the town planner or conservation agent, could approach Cannon with a town-counsel question independently.
Select Board member Paul Ciaburri had the last word on this issue, noting, “Let’s see how this works, then come back to it. This is new to all of us.”
The meeting ended with a decision to delete the new policy’s “Litigation” provision and insert the town bylaw on the subject. This was decided because the document states, “it is the Board of Selectmen’s general policy to provide counsel for any municipal board or employee in litigation arising under said municipal employee’s or board’s capacity.” Attendees concluded the town bylaw itself is stronger on this provision for ensuring employees can access Town Counsel.
Hartley said in conclusion that the board will now put in changes discussed and give the document back to the attendees when finished.
Attendees included the chair and members of the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission, all three Select Board members, Fire Chief Scott Weigel, Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge, Town Planner Nancy Durfee, Building Commissioner Paul Boucher, Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly and Health Director Karen Walega.
Rochester Interdepartmental Meeting
By Michael J. DeCicco