Renaissance is kicking off its outreach

The company picked to redevelop the former mall site downtown is kicking off its effort to reach out to the community.

The Long Island-based Renaissance Downtowns has begun seeking input from city officials, business leaders and others as it begins narrowing its options for how best to revitalize the 17-acre site purchased by the city five years ago.

“It’s going to get hard, fast and exciting,” said Tim Furey, a Bristol attorney who represents Renaissance.
Click here for the full story.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Battle lines drawn on chief operating officer

Though city councilors told the Charter Revision Commission to nix the idea of changing the city government’s blueprint to include a chief operating officer, the seven-member panel unanimously agreed Tuesday to push for the plan anyway.
The move opens the door for a referendum drive to begin after the City Council again rejects the city manager-lite concept put forth by the charter panel.
“This is a very important issue,” said Tim Furey, the attorney who heads the charter commission. He said that residents want the opportunity to vote on the suggested change.
The charter panel’s decision followed a 75-minute joint session with councilors that sharpened divisions and set the stage for a push to create the new slot aimed at bringing more efficiency and oversight to City Hall.
Opposition to the scheme focused on its expense and possible lack of support in the community.
City Councilor Mike Rimcoski said officials would be “creating a monster” if they backed the recommendation from the charter panel.
But the other GOP councilor, rookie Ken Cockayne, said it’s important to “let it go to the public and let ‘em vote on it.”
What happens next is that the charter panel will file a final report within a week, after which the council will take a formal vote on each of the commission’s recommendations. Any that are backed will automatically appear on the November 4 general election ballot.
Anything that’s gunned down by the council – as the chief operating officer is almost certain to be – are dead unless supporters can get 10 percent of the city’s registered voters to sign petitions calling for the suggestion to reach the ballot as well. That means about 3,100 signatures will be needed within 45 days of the council’s vote.
Led by city Councilors Craig Minor, a Democrat, and Cockayne, a bipartisan push to gather the required names will begin soon after the council vote.
Seizing on comments by Mayor Art Ward and rookie city Councilor Cliff Block that they’d like to see if there’s enough support to get the required signatures, charter commissioners said they want the council to order city lawyers to help draft the necessary paperwork properly.
Furey said he didn’t want the proposal to die “because someone didn’t dot an I or cross a T.”
Dale Clift, the city attorney, told the charter panel that it could not legally discuss asking the council for legal assistance because the matter wasn’t listed on its meeting agenda. He said discussing it violated open government laws.
But Furey said the request would be part of the panel’s final report and thus was allowable.
Though Clift warned that including it “may jeopardize your final report,” Furey and the commission agreed to make it a part of the document anyway.
Four times they brushed aside warnings by Clift to stop discussing the matter.
“I’m a little flummoxed by it,” Clift said.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Charter hearing on Tuesday night

A proposal to add a chief operating officer to the city government’s permanent structure is among a handful of issues on the agenda for what may be the final public hearing of the Charter Revision Commission Tuesday.
The panel’s chairman, Tim Furey, said Monday that he expects to hear from residents and city officials who want to weigh in a four primary issues where the commission is eyeing changes to the city government’s blueprint.
The most controversial suggestion is to add a chief operating officer who would take over many of the administrative duties that are currently handled by the city’s full-time elected mayor.
The city manager-lite proposal dodges the need to overhaul the entire structure of Bristol’s government while providing what some see as a need for more oversight and continuity in municipal affairs.
“It is clear the current design of the mayor/council form of government is lacking in administrative consistency there is value to having an elected municipal leader. We felt strongly as a group that the duties of the mayor are too demanding and leave little time for appropriate strategic planning and promotion of the City,” according to the panel’s draft report.
Another controversial measure the commission plans to recommend to city councilors that they support changing the part-time treasurer’s post from an elected to appointed one.
Furey said the commission will review the suggestions it hears at tonight’s hearing next week before preparing the final report it has to submit to the City Council by April 4.
The hearing is slated for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the meeting room at City Hall.
Thanks to Furey's willingness to send me copies, I have PDFs of several draft documents that the commission is looking at that detail its findings and recommendations. They may well be changed before they are submitted to the City Council, but here they are in current form:

Draft report - Final report of the Charter Revision Commission

Draft report - Citing major changes eyed by the commission

Draft Report - Showing entire charter with changes indicated throughout

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Chief operating officer still moving forward

I'm sitting at a stunningly dull Charter Revision Commission meeting where members are talking about the particularities of a possible chief operating officer who would oversee city department heads.
The panel chairman, Tim Furey, is pushing the idea hard. He said that adding the position would provide more oversight, more continuity and more efficiency.
Let me give you a flavor for this thing....
"Is this person going to have a term?" asked Ann Baldwin, an assistant city attorney. If not, she said, the term is automatically two years.
Furey said the contract could lay out the term and rights to any severance.
"It sounds like it's the better way to go," said Al Marko, a committee member.
Furey said that in business, the length of service effects their severance pay.
But that whole idea is now sort of dropped.
"We need to set up a special meeting to look at a fleshed out section for this," Furey said.
A public hearing will follow in March, officials said.
The panel's supposed to report to the council by April 4 so time is tight.
For a hearing, Baldwin said, the charter commission has to have a draft report finished so that people can read it before the final hearing.
Furey wants to know how simple the recommendations can be.
There doesn't need to be an explanation for the recommendations, Baldwin said, though perhaps a cover letter to the mayor and council will explain the rationales for changes sought by the panel.
Furey wants to know if the panel can refine its report after a hearing. The answer is yes.
Baldwin said that before the hearing, the panel needs to vote on what to include in a draft report.
After the hearing, the committee has to meet again so that it could make revisions in its suggestions, Baldwin said.
Furey suggests a meeting on Tuesday, March 11 and a hearing on March 18. The final charter meeting would be on March 25.
So by March 11, "by hook or by crook," Furey said he'll have something together for his colleagues to refine.
Now Baldwin is pointing out that March 11 is a council session.
Furey said he wants to finalize the COO position and prepare a report at the March 11 hearing.
The council would accept the report at its April 8 meeting and schedule its own public hearing on the suggestions.
Furey said the proposals will be fleshed out in time for the March 11 charter sessions.
I have no idea if the council supports the idea of a chief operating officer. It will be interesting to hear how that works out.
Anybody have any thuughts on this whole concept?


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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City manager of sorts gets initial backing

Reporter Jackie Majerus just filed this:

A city manager – or something close to it – may be in Bristol’s future.
The city’s charter revision commission is moving toward shifting some of the mayor’s duties to a professional business manager, while still leaving the City Council and a full-time mayor in place, according to Tim Furey, who chairs the panel.
Furey said the commission has asked Ann Baldwin, an attorney for the city, to begin looking at the city charter with the idea of adding a chief operating officer or city manager.
The plan is to try to figure out “how the organizational chart would look,” said Furey.
Commissioner Harley Graham said the city has to come into the “modern age” and leave the mindset of doing things the way they’ve always been done.
“We need some professionalism,” said Graham. “We may have to redefine what the mayor does.”
Furey said the commission has given up on the idea of a total conversion to a city manager form of government, but reached something of a consensus without taking a full vote.
Instead, he said, they want to add professionalism and continuity to a system dependent on frequent municipal elections.
“People wanted some management continuity that was semi-immune from the political process,” said Furey.
But Furey said it’s also important to have a mayor who is the public face of the community.
“I like the idea of keeping a mayor in place,” said Furey. “Someone’s gotta be the king, so to speak.”
Just what responsibilities an incoming business professional would take on, who he or she would answer to and how the city could discharge that person if it wasn’t working out have yet to be determined.
“The devil is in the details,” said Furey.
Commissioner Maria Pirro said a city manager should be required to live in Bristol – something others on the panel also agreed with. By getting involved in the community, she said, that individual would “become vested” in Bristol.
Dick Prindle, a member of the commission, spoke against the city manager idea, but said he liked the notion of the mayor having an assistant.
“A mayor has a lot to do,” said Prindle.
City Councilor Craig Minor said he supported an assistant for former Mayor Gerard Couture a few years ago, “thinking I was giving the mayor a chief of staff.”
But Minor said he was disappointed when that assistant, former state Rep. Kosta Diamantis, spent all his time working on what were at the time plans for the conversion of the downtown mall into a community recreation and retail complex.
The charter revision commission will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22 at the Bristol Board of Education.
People can address many issues that night, Furey said, including the city manager idea, but he said he hopes the hearing will be focused on the question of whether Bristol should return to an appointed school board.
After that public hearing, there will be a series of meetings to work on the charter with regard to a city manager or chief operating officer, said Furey, and more opportunities for the public to weigh in on the issue.
Any recommendation made by the charter revision commission must be approved by city councilors before it goes on the ballot.
“The electorate in the end has to decide,” said Furey.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Return to appointed school board remains possible

The possibility of a return to an appointed Board of Education is growing stronger.
The city’s Charter Revision Commission this week voted 4-3 to pursue the idea despite concerns about a hefty workload and a looming April deadline for completing its recommendations for changes to the city government’s blueprint.
“It’s not that complicated an issue,” said Tim Furey, chairman of the reform panel.
The charter commission plans a Jan. 22 public hearing on the issue and may make a decision on whether to recommend the change the same night. Furey said there’s no reason it couldn’t be dealt with in a single day.
Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney, said that making the change is relatively simple because the city only needs to return to the charter language used before the decision 15 years ago to shift to an elected school board.
Officials are eyeing the change because some of them are concerned that the school board isn’t responsive enough to the public. Some also argue privately they could appoint a higher caliber board because many qualified people are reluctant to run for elected office.
Hal Kilby, a charter panelist, said that the school board election results this month – where every incumbent on the ballot was reelected – show that perhaps residents weren’t as unhappy with the education overseers as “a vocal minority” who grumbled at city meetings before the election indicated.
Furey said that he considers himself fairly astute about local politics, but when people asked him to vote for in the school board race, he could only come up with a few names of the people running. The rest, he said, were unfamiliar to him.
He said he was bothered by the lack of visibility of the candidates and wondered why the Democratic and Republican town committees passed over potential candidates who were passionate about their interest in education.
Maria Pirro, another charter panel member, said she also didn’t know who the school board candidates were this year.
Those who support a return to an appointed board said that letting the mayor and City Council make the choices would mean that officials with a vested interest in having a good school board would pick wisely. Voters, on the other hand, are stuck with the choices that political parties offer.
Furey said he hopes to hear from the school superintendent and school board members at the hearing. He said he’s interested in knowing their perspective on the issue.
The charter commissioners who didn’t want to pursue the school board change said they prefer to concentrate their limited time on the city manager issue.
Any return to an appointed board would not take effect until the recently elected school panel’s terms of office end in 2011.
The charter commission’s recommendations will go first to the City Council, which can back them, turn them down or ask the commission to revise them. Anything approved by the council would go on the November 2008 general election ballot because no charter changes can occur without voters endorsing them.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com