For a complete listing of past winners, as well as information about how to become involved next year, please visit our website at http://www.sec.state.vt.us/centennial_business.html. Also, if you know of a business in your community that qualifies as a centenarian but has not yet been recognized, please contact Marianne Lynch at 828-2148 or mlynch@sec.state.vt.us.

3. Formal approval of minutes not required by law. One town was concerned that minutes of a prior meeting were not ever approved because the new board members did not want to approve minutes of the prior board meeting which they had not participated. While it is good practice to approve the minutes of the previous meeting of a board, Vermont law does not require this approval. Approval of minutes will give the minutes a greater presumption of accuracy if at a later date the minutes are needed to prove legal action of the town. However, failure to have approval will not, alone, call into question the legality of the board’s decisions.

4. Minutes of meetings are not transcripts. Vermont law requires minutes to be kept of all public meetings. The minutes are the legal record of the action taken at the meeting. Accordingly, the minutes must note all topics and motions that arise at the meeting. At a minimum the law requires the minutes to list all "members of the public body present; all other active participants in the meeting, all motions, proposals and resolutions made, offered and considered, and what disposition is made of same; and the results of any votes, with a record of the individual vote of each member if a roll call is taken." 1 V.S.A. § 312(b). The minutes should not be a transcript of the meeting or reflect what was said by individuals in discussion because this often causes confusion and disagreement and it is not required for the legal record.

5. Minutes of meetings do not need to be posted. The law does not require minutes of meetings to be posted in the municipality. Rather, minutes must be available to the public on request within five working days of the meeting. 1 V.S.A. § 312.

6. A person cannot be made a Justice-For-A-Day to perform a wedding or civil union ceremony. In Vermont only judges, justices of the peace and members of the clergy may solemnize marriages or civil unions. Unlike some of our neighbors there is no provision in Vermont law to permit a person to become a justice of the peace for a day in order to solemnize a particular marriage or civil union. Justices of the Peace are either elected in a town, or appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy. 18 V.S.A. §5164.

7. Unexpended highway funds can be carried over to new fiscal year. Generally speaking, unexpended funds cannot be carried from year to year without a new vote authorizing their expenditure. A statutory exception to this rule exists for unexpended highway funds. 19 V.S.A. § 312 provides that "the funds raised from town highway taxes shall not be used for any purpose other than that for which the tax was voted . . . . If in any year money so voted is not expended, it shall be applied for the same purpose the following year."

8. The time for dog licensing and tags is here. Just a brief reminder that the dog must wear the "license" tag required by the Vermont Statutes. This tag is sufficient proof that the dog has been vaccinated for rabies. An additional "rabies" tag is not required. 20 V.S.A. §3581(a).

9. Dog who moves within state does not have to be relicensed. A dog license obtained from a Vermont clerk is valid in any part of the state. The license may be transferred to the new town, provided it is where the dog or wolf-hybrid is kept. The clerk of the new town must record the license when he or she is presented with a valid license that had been issued by another town clerk. 20 V.S.A. § 3591.

10. Poundkeeper can be nonresident. The poundkeeper cares for animals that are impounded by the town. He or she is appointed by the Selectboard, and can be a nonresident. 24 V.S.A. § 871(2). While all towns are required to maintain a pound, it is possible to use a pound in an adjacent town with the consent of that town.

11. Animal owner may sue poundkeeper for lack of care. Vermont law requires the poundkeeper to supply the animal in his or her care with food and water. If an animal is not given sufficient food and water and is harmed the poundkeeper may be liable to the owners. 20 V.S.A. § 3412.

12. Unclaimed animals may be sold. If the owner of an impounded animal does not claim the animal the poundkeeper may sell the animal after giving the owner 48 hours notice, if the owner is known, or if the owner is unknown, by posting notices within the town and adjoining towns describing the animal and the time and place where it is impounded. The animal may be sold thirty days after this notice is completed. 20 V.S.A. 3421. Note that any proceeds from the sale, in excess of the expenses of impounding, advertising and selling the animal, and paying for any damages caused by the animal must be kept by the town treasurer to pay to the animal’s former owner if the owner requests the payment within one year of the sale. 20 V.S.A. § 3422.

13. Animal control officer or constable may impound dog running at large. The Selectboard may adopt an animal control ordinance that regulates the keeping of dogs and wolf-hybrids and their running at large. 20 V.S.A. § 3549. This ordinance may prohibit animals from running at large. Even without such an ordinance, because of concern over exposure to rabies, if the animal control officer knows who owns a dog, it may nevertheless impound the animal and require the owner identify and provide proof of registration (and that it has a current rabies certificate.) The owner can be charged the costs of impoundment and any damages that may have been caused by the animal

14. Election of Officers May Not Be Reconsidered. While 17 V.S.A. §2661 provides a method for reconsideration of public questions, and budgets, the election of officers cannot be reconsidered by filing a petition with the legislative body. The only way to challenge or contest an election of an officer is by filing a petition with the appropriate Superior Court. 17 V.S.A. §2603. The statute sets out that you must allege either errors sufficient to change the outcome of the election, fraud in the process sufficient to change the result, or that for any other reason, the election is not valid.

15. Adjourned meeting can only discuss articles warned for the original meeting. If an annual meeting is adjourned to a date certain to continue the meeting, the adjourned session can only include completion of voting and discussion of articles which were in the original warning. New articles cannot be added during the recess. The adjourned session is a continuation of the original meeting. If the deadline for posting of the warning has passed, and your board has thought of another article to be voted, the town will need to either warn a special meeting or save it for next year.

16. Clerks should send absentee ballots for reconsideration vote to those who received them for the initial vote. Although the law does not speak directly to requesting absentee ballots for reconsideration of an article by Australian ballot, we suggest that fairness dictates that the Town Clerk send absentee ballots for the reconsideration to all voters who had requested absentee ballots for Town Meeting. Reconsideration is really an extension of that Town meeting and we believe that absent voters should continue to participate.

17. A person must be a United States citizen, in order to register to vote and be added to a checklist in Vermont. 24 V.S.A. §2121. It is not enough that Canadian or any other foreign citizens own property in town, or pay taxes, or have applied for U.S. citizenship. U.S. citizenship must have been granted, before a person is eligible to vote. Similarly, having lived in town most of one's life is not enough to create citizenship. Having a "green card" does not mean that the person is a citizen. Our application for the checklist contains a box that must be checked by the voter to affirm that he or she is a citizen.

18. Deliberative session is exempt from the Open Meeting Law. Deliberative sessions are totally exempt from the Open Meeting Law so that a board does not have to warn the session, and the decision of the board does not need to be adopted in open session so long as the decision is in writing and is a public record. 1 V.S.A. 312(f). A deliberative session can be used by a board at the end of a quasi-judicial proceeding to discuss the merits of the application, weigh the evidence, and arrive at points that the board wants to address in its written decision. 1 V.S.A.§312(e). Applications for site plan approval (planning commission or development review board), requests for variances (zoning board of adjustment or development review board), and requests for a curb cut or driveway permit (selectboard) are examples of quasi-judicial hearings. On the other hand, a planning commission hearing on adoption of a zoning by-law or work sessions to draft revisions to the zoning bylaw or an ordinance are a legislative type of proceedings and deliberative sessions cannot be used.

19. Letter from board needs to be approved or authorized at public meeting. On occasion a board is asked to submit a letter of support on an issue (or a letter of opposition). In such cases the board must act to approve or authorize the letter at a public meeting. This is because any action taken by a public body must be done in a publicly noticed open meeting of the board. The only exception is the taking of real estate options, and deliberation of boards in quasi-judicial matters where the decision is in writing. 1 V.S.A. § 312, 313(a).

22. Towns are not required to use bid process. There is no state statute that requires towns or town cemeteries to use a public bid process. However, many towns have adopted public bid policies, and some towns include bidding requirements in their charters. Whenever a public official may be an interested bidder, a public bid process should be used to ensure that the public has confidence in the selection process. Note that the law requires public bidding in many school district contracts.

23. Board members should stay away when board decision could affect their pocketbook. Whenever a board member has a financial interest in a decision of the board he or she serves on, the board member should not only not participate in the decision but he or she should not be present during the discussion of the matter. This is because it is important for the public to feel confident that the decision was made in the best interest of the community, and that the interested board member did not exercise undue influence on other board members. Note that there is no law that regulates this type of conflict of interest outside a quasi-judicial proceeding. However, the law permits communities to adopt ethics policies that would reach these types of conflict of interest either by vote of the board or by a voter petition. 24 V.S.A. § 2291

24. Resources are available to help towns understand the required changes to our land use regulations. We have been receiving many calls with questions about the newest changes to our land use regulations laws – some of which first came into effect this past fall. Explanations of the changes to our local land use regulations laws, and tools to help implement the changes are available at http://www.vpic.info/chapter117/ or by contacting the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

In the February 2006 edition of Opinions, we stated the following:

15.Some local officials do not have to be residents. In most cases, in order to be elected or appointed to serve in local office you must be a voter in that municipality. However, the law does not require assistant treasurers or assistant clerks to be residents of the communities where they serve. In addition, the town clerk or treasurer can serve as clerk or treasurer of a village or fire district even if they are not a resident of that municipality. A town tax collector can serve as an incorporated school district collector even if not a resident of the district. There is also no residency requirement for appointment to town planning and zoning boards. However, for the planning commission, at least a majority of the members must be residents of the town.