RTM Rules Committee Meets Monday Night: Agenda Includes Leaving Town Budget Approval to Finance Board

The Representative Town Meeting may not be the final arbiter of this coming year’s town budget. Instead, the Board of Finance may be the last town body to decide on the budget, without then sending it to the RTM.

A proposal to do that is one of the items on the agenda for tonight’s 7:30 RTM Rules Committee meeting. You can listen to the meeting live, and see it shortly afterward online, but not submit comment on to the committee.

The Rules Committee will also consider a proposal, described vaguely in committee documents posted online, for a local tax deferment program or “low intereste rate program” for town taxpayers.

Unless the Rules Committee is blocking a particular proposal or itself deciding on a proposal, each of the proposals at tonight’s meeting will likely be considered in detail by one or more other RTM committees that the Rules Committee will assign to make recommendations to the full RTM.

The agenda item regarding the Board of Finance might be voted on by the Rules Committee itself, which could then directly pass the matter on to the RTM for a final vote.

The resolution about the Board of Finance having final approval on the budget seems to say that the matter was already decided in a directive from the governor, acting under the state declaration of an emergency as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. Here’s what part of the resolution states:

“Whereas, on March 21 the governor issued Executive Order No. 7-I, paragraph 13, which dispenses with any in-person voting requirements (including referenda and town meetings requiring in-person votes) for purposes of adopting 2020-2021 fiscal year municipal budgets and setting the mill rate, in effect conferring final responsibility on the ‘budget-making authority’ of the town to adopt a budget and set a mill rate […]”

The resolution also states that notwithstanding any municipal charter or state or local law or ordinance, “the legislative body of any municipality shall authorize the budget-making authority within said municipality to adopt a budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.”

Also on tonight’s meeting agenda are:

—how (and perhaps whether) the RTM will hold its meetings scheduled for April 27 and May 11;

—how the RTM will consider whether to approve:

— — tax deferral or other relief in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic;

— — planned work to improve the intersection at West and Noroton Avenues (including approval of easements to the town of bits of land at or near the intersection and approving a state grant to help pay for it);

— — the acceptance of a gift from the Darien Foundation to the Police Department;

— — acceptance of a gift from the same foundation for Darien firefighter training;

— — another gift from the foundation, this one to Darien TV79;

— — allowing the RTM moderator to postpone an RTM meeting for a period within 10 days of the original schedule “in the event of inclement weather, power failure or similar circumstances.”

The committee typically decides which RTM committees will look into specific proposals before the RTM and report back to the full body at its next meeting date.

You Can Listen Live, Watch Soon After

• The agenda document states “No public comments will be taken during the meeting, but the public can listen. It is expected that a Vimeo [recording] of this meeting will be available through Channel 79 shortly after the meeting.”
• Jim Cameron, program manager for Darien TV79, said in an email that “TV79 will record and post to Vimeo ASAP. Public can listen to meeting by calling 1-571-317-3122 access code 616-598-453.”

Background Material

These documents go into more detail about proposals in front of the Rules Committee:

Executive Summary Noroton/West Easements
Resolution 20-2 
Resolution 20-3 
Resolution 20-4 
Resolution 20-5 
Resolution 20-6 
Resolution 20-7 
Resolution 20-8 
Executive Summary 
Resolution 20-9 
Resolution 20-10 
Resolution 20-11 
Resolution – Budget 
Resolution – Relief/Support Program 
Resolution – TV79 Gift 

The Rules Committee’s Agenda

You also can see both pages of the agenda document in this PDF. The first page, with the agenda itself, is shown below: