Changing Newcastle’s fiscal year from January-December to July-June will effect the timing of the annual town meeting and the terms of elected municipal officials and appointments. The Town is not bound legally to hold to our traditional end of March annual meeting and elections schedule. It makes most practical sense to have the timing of our governance activities coincide with and compliment the town’s new business and budgeting cycle of July 1 – June 30.
It might be valuable to remind and clarify for residents the underlying purpose of the town meeting concept. Maine municipal statutes simply provide that “each town shall hold an annual town meeting at which time …the following town officials shall be elected by ballot.”
The courts, subsequently, have interpreted or ruled this particular provision to mean that the concept of an annual town meeting is a meeting at which a municipality primarily takes place to elect its municipal officers. The law does not even stipulate that the annual budget must be adopted at the annual town meeting or that town meeting has to act on any matter other than the election of municipal officers.
Maine law used to specifically require that annual town meetings had to be held in March, which is why Newcastle historically has a March annual town meeting. That requirement was eliminated back in 1969, allowing municipalities to schedule their respective town elections at any time of year, which the municipal officers considered to be in their respective town’s best interests. This is why setting of a fixed date for the annual town meeting has been left up to the “good judgment and discretion of the selectmen’, according to Maine law.
In Newcastle, the selectmen had this authority reaffirmed with the passage of Article 31 at the March 2009 annual town meeting. Collectively with professional advice and input from our auditor, finance committee and the Maine Municipal Association legal department, it has been determined to switch the timing of our annual town meeting from end of March to June in 2010. The date has not yet been decided upon but will likely be in the mid – June time frame, prior to the start of the 2011 fiscal year on July 1, 2010.
This new timetable will also have the added benefit of putting us on the same budget and meeting schedule as our sister “twin village” Damariscotta thereby increasing and not limiting further opportunities for the two towns to work in partnership.
Currently, Newcastle’s local elections for selectmen, school committee and the Great Salt Bay Sanitary District coincide with the end of March annual town meeting. By now going to a June annual town meeting election day for these positions shifts to the day selected as the new annual Town Meeting day in June.
It is a general rule of municipal elections law that municipally elected officials or positions automatically “hold over” in their respective positions until they are re-elected or their successor(s) are duly elected and qualified by the Town Clerk. Under Maine law this holdover rule is also applicable in a case such as ours where the town is changing its fiscal year and it is decided to hold the annual town meeting later than in previous years.
The Town has three elected officials who are directly impacted by this holdover provision. They are Selectman Bob Plourde, School Committee Member Carole Brinkler, and GSB Sanitary Trustee Kit Hayden. It is my understanding have all been duly notified of their approximate 75 day holdover in their current positions. Similarly, appointments by the Board of Selectmen to town committees with terms expiring in the 2010 March/April timeframe, will also hold over until the Board of Selectmen reviews the status of its annual appointments shortly after the annual town meeting.
Residents are encouraged to e-mail newcastle.admin@roadrunner.com or call the town office (563-441), if they have questions specific to their individual terms or appointments or simply desire clarification. In the next and final article we will address what effect a change in the fiscal years will have on the levying of taxes for 18 months of budget expenditures.
