Officials split on June town meetings

Hanover Selectman Alan Rugman would like to see his town move the date of its annual meetings to June, now that the state has given communities that option.

"From an administrative standpoint, it makes a lot of sense," he said, noting that the town has more definitive state aid figures in June than on the first Monday in May, when its annual meetings are now held. Rugman said he plans to offer the idea at an upcoming board meeting.

But Jonathan Witten, chairman of the Duxbury Board of Selectmen, does not expect his town, which now meets the second Saturday in March, to shift to a June date.

"Options are always good to have in the financial world, but I don't see an immediate need for us to respond to that offer," he said.

Those two divergent opinions reflect the region's mixed reaction to a new law enabling towns to push their annual town meetings to June.

Until now, the standard window for the meetings, set by the state, was February through May. Towns could establish a June meeting date only through special legislation or by providing for it in their charters, according to state rules. Or they could get around the requirement by convening their meeting earlier in the spring, and then adjourning until June.

Under the new legislation, signed April 15 by Governor Deval Patrick, towns may move to a June date through a simple bylaw change unless their current dates are set in their charter or a special act, in which case those would need to be amended.

The intent, said state Representative Denis E. Guyer, a Dalton Democrat and chief sponsor of the bill, is to give towns that want it more time to finalize their budgets.

In June, communities have "a more realistic picture of the revenues that are coming back from the state," he said, noting that June meetings also would afford school districts, particularly regional ones, the additional time they need to prepare and present their spending plans.

"It's just one more tool we are giving local government officials, I think, to help them craft a more reasonable and accurate budget," Guyer said.

"It gives communities more flexibility than we understand they have now," said John Robertson, associate legislative director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which backed the bill. "We thought that was a good thing."

Guyer said his only note of caution to towns is that if they choose June date for their annual meetings, they face tighter deadlines in completing their work before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Canton finance director Jim Murgia favors having his town move its annual meeting date to June. Under its bylaws, Canton now meets the last Monday in April.

"To me, it's advantageous," he said of shifting to a June date. "As you get later in the year, the numbers you are trying to pull together become more known." He said the town would have to "feel out the voters and see what they think of the idea."

In Pembroke, which meets on the fourth Tuesday in April, Town Administrator Edwin Thorne said there might be merit to shifting the meeting to the first Tuesday in May because the current date sometimes falls within school vacation week, as occurred this year.

"I don't know that we'd be interested in going to June," he said, but added that could change if the state reverts from its recent practice of sending out local aid figures by late March or early April.

Lakeville Town Administrator Rita Garbitt said that, after postponing its annual meeting till June for several years, the town about five years ago passed a bylaw to shift the meeting date to June.

"But we found out after it was passed at Town Meeting that it wasn't allowed. . . . The attorney general rejected it," she said. The town's current bylaw provides for the annual meeting to be held the second Monday in May.

As for the new law allowing the shift to June, she said, "I'm sure we will discuss it after Town Meeting."

Scituate's Annual Town Meeting this year voted to shift the date of its meeting from the first Saturday in March to the second Monday in April, to get a better "feeling of the state aid levels," said the chairman of the selectmen, Rick Murray. He said the town wanted to move away from Saturday meetings because of the conflicts they pose with family activities.

Murray said he would prefer to see how the new schedule works before considering a shift of the meeting to June.

Dedham Town Manager Bill Keegan said his town, which shifted its meeting date from the first Monday in April to the third Monday in May effective this year, also is likely to keep to that date for now, noting, "It's close to June anyway."

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.