OK, because I am a blogger but not a lawyer (nor play one on the ‘Grok), a bleg and favor to all those folks, lawyers and legislators, that can send some advice!
As I have blogged before, I am an elected official in my NH hamlet – the Budget Committee (SB2). Now as a former biz analyst, I like data – a LOTS of it. Now, the last couple of years, I’ve looked at what was presented: each department with each of its own line items (e.g., electric, phone, salary, benefits, inventories, et al). And then at the end, I re-aggregated all the like items together (all electric, all salaries,…) and was none too happy.
Well, this year, I’ve made a bunch of data requests to both the Town and School District for long term trending data on these same items; stuff that i bet no one has ever asked for before. After all, if only presented with a couple or three years of data, it is all but impossible to say if there is a cost trend, and if there is, is it advantageous for taxpayers or against them? And the RSAs clearly state that the Budget Committee is allowed to do so. Period.
Well, it has come to my attention that the Selectmen and the Town Administrator have decided that they have the ability to add their own restrictions:
Selectmen have notified the chairman the town’s Budget Committee that requests for detailed fiscal information may be getting out of hand, and they feel requests for in-depth budget analysis be supported by a vote of the committee.
In a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Dick Hickok selectmen said committee members have a certain role to fulfill and a protocol will be set up to request information after a member of the committee was asking questions that might have exceeded his responsibility.
The letter to Hickok was send after a request made by Budget Committee member Skip Murphy. In the letter dated July 13, the town states the concern of possible other requests, similar to what was made by Murphy, could be forthcoming from each and every other member of the committee, which could hold up town resources from a time perspective.
…“With this in mind, the selectmen are concerned that this particular request may not truly reflect the ‘pertinent information’ needs of the Budget Committee as a whole, absent a vote taken at a duly public meeting that reflects a majority decision along those lines,” states the letter.
The town is requesting that a formal vote is to be taken if a member of the committee requests information on RSAs, regulations, unfunded mandates, financial consequences stemming from donating, 10-year trending data, hourly cost of service or other specific information.
“In addition, please be advised that we are troubled by the voluminous nature of the information being requested that will require research and the preparation of reports that are not currently available, especially given the dubious value of this information when you consider the level of line item detail that is typically provided with the budgets along with the numerous opportunities Budget Committee members will have to directly question department managers,” the letter states.
But like the salary studies I did my first year on the BudComm (that reverberated around our larger community and effected a number of fiscal structural changes in our town), I’m betting this data will do the same.
And I’m betting they know it too. Problem is for the Selectmen, the Town Administrator, and the lawyer that is most likely advising them, they have a huge problem…the RSAs do not have the Selectmen in the driver’s seat, they have the Budget Committee. If you read them (after the jump), there is NOTHING in the RSAs that allow the Selectment (or the School Board) the ability to direct how the Budget Committee does its job, makes it requests, or how it votes.
And since it is the Budget Committee that is judging the two respective budgets, nor should they. And the Chair of the Budget Committee has made the formal request.
The relevant RSAs: RSA 32:16, RSA 32"17, and RSA 32:22: RSA 32:16, 32:17 and 32:22
32:16 Duties and Authority of the Budget Committee. – In any town which has adopted the provisions of this subdivision, the budget committee shall have the following duties and responsibilities:
I. To prepare the budget as provided in RSA 32:5, and if authorized under RSA 40:14-b, a default budget under RSA 40:13, IX(b) for submission to each annual or special meeting of the voters of the municipality, and, if the municipality is a town, the budgets of any school district or village district wholly within the town, unless the warrant for such meeting does not propose any appropriation.
II. To confer with the governing body or bodies and with other officers, department heads and other officials, relative to estimated costs, revenues anticipated, and services performed to the extent deemed necessary by the budget committee. It shall be the duty of all such officers and other persons to furnish such pertinent information to the budget committee.
" to the extent deemed necessary by the budget committee" spells out exactly which body determines what information is necessary and in what format.
32:17 Duties of Governing Body and Other Officials. – The governing bodies of municipalities adopting this subdivision, or of districts which are wholly within towns adopting this subdivision, shall review the statements submitted to them under RSA 32:4 and shall submit their own recommendations to the budget committee, together with all information necessary for the preparation of the annual budget, including each purpose for which an appropriation is sought and each item of anticipated revenue, at such time as the budget committee shall fix. In the case of a special meeting calling for the appropriation of money, the governing body shall submit such information not later than 5 days prior to the required public hearing. Department heads and other officers shall submit their departmental statements of estimated expenditures and receipts to the budget committee, if requested.
32:22 Review of Expenditures. – Upon request by the budget committee, the governing body of the town or district, or the town manager or other administrative official, shall forthwith submit to the budget committee a comparative statement of all appropriations and all expenditures by them made in such detail as the budget committee may require. The budget committee shall meet periodically to review such statements. The provisions of this section shall not be construed to mean that the budget committee, or any member of the committee, shall have any authority to dispute or challenge the discretion of other officials over current town or district expenditures, except as provided in RSA 32:23.
I have bolded the part I believe to be relevant. It is not up to the Town or School officials to determine what is relevant – that is totally up to us, the members of the Budget Committee. Indeed, if you notice, I have bolded the word "shall". This is a command – "you will do this and you cannot ignore this or deny this". It is not subject to time, effort, or amount of work or detail. It is a final declaration by the House, Senate, and Governor of the State of NH of which my hamlet is but a single subdivision. The word shall should and must be obeyed.
I sent the following to the Chair of the Budget Committee:
As far as a protocol is concerned, since you as Chair have forwarded the request, that is all that should be needed. It is irrelevant to either the School Board or the Selectmen as to the inner workings (i.e., votes or discussions or any other processes) of the Budget Committee from where such data requests arise. Reasonableness is a word that does not appear in the RSA; while it may have been used in discussions, it is the law that has the final word. Indeed, it clearly states "in such detail as the budget committee may require"; in this matter, it is the Budget Committee that makes the decisions and no other.
I am asking that the data requests, now having formally passed along by the Budget Committee Chair, be honored by both the School District and the Municipal authorities.
I started it off this post asking for those that know more than I about what should be a reading of the clear and plain words of the RSAs – where have I gone awry if I have?
