1. Voter checklists must be purged by September 20th. Vermont law provides that by September 20th of each odd numbered year, the town clerk shall send a letter to the secretary of state to confirm that the BCA has completed purging the checklist. 17 V.S.A.§2150 (d)(7). A memorandum explaining the process to challenge and purge (checklist maintenance) was sent to all town and city clerks on April 8, 2009, and the memorandum is also posted on our website. To purge the checklist, the BCA must review your checklist to ensure that the clerk has removed the names of voters who have died, who have provided notice of voter registration in another jurisdiction, who have submitted a DMV change of address form indicating residence in a new town, or who have provided any other written notice (response to a challenge letter or other written notice). The BCA must also review the checklist in order to designate those voters that have not provided notice to the town of moving but who the BCA believes to have moved from your town so that the Town Clerk will be authorized to send a challenge letter to all voters who the BCA believes are no longer living in your town.

2. Some voters who have moved from town do not get purged. The law establishes certain voters who can move out of town but may remain as voters in the town. These include members of the military who are on active duty and voters living outside of the United States. This only applies when the voter resided in a Vermont town or city immediately prior to joining the military or moving overseas. Until the voter leaves the military or returns to reside in the United States, the voter can remain on the checklist and vote by absentee ballot in the town in which the voter last resided before joining the military or moving overseas.

3. Towns should have policies on use of municipal buildings. It is good practice for the legislative body to adopt a policy about non-municipal use of town or school property. It is constitutionally permissible for a board to prohibit any and all use by outside groups. However, it is not good policy, and may cause discrimination claims, to allow use of the buildings by certain categories or types of groups and not others, unless there is a real difference in the type of use being requested. For example, it is reasonable and acceptable to limit use of certain rooms or spaces to groups of less than 30, or to prohibit food or alcohol from being served, or to require meetings to end not later than 9 p.m. However, it may be discriminatory to allow the boy scouts to meet in a room, but to turn down a political caucus or a religious organization.

4. Town agent and listers are disqualified from participating on tax appeals as members of the BCA. In the event that a town agent or a lister is also a member of the board of civil authority, the agent or lister is prohibited from serving as a member of the board when it is conducting tax appeals. The law provides that "listers and agents to prosecute and defend suits wherein a town is interested shall not be eligible to serve as members of the board while convened to hear and determine such appeals..." The law goes on to say that "listers and agents to prosecute and defend suits wherein a town is interested shall be given the opportunity to defend the appraisals in question." 32 VSA § 4404 (d).

5. BCA can convene tax appeal hearings and then schedule individual hearings by continuing the hearings to a later date. Vermont law requires the board of civil authority to begin tax appeal hearings no later than 14 days after the last date allowed for the notice of appeal. 32 V.S.A. §4404 requires the hearings to start within the 14 days but does not require that the hearing be completed on that date. Consequently, if there are too many appeals for the board to be able to hear all of them at this first hearing date the board may convene and then continue individual hearings to a later date. In towns that have held town wide reappraisals and have a great many appeals, it makes sense to use the initial hearing date as an organizational meeting to explain the process to appellants and to schedule individual cases to be heard at a later date.

6. Tax appeal hearing may be postponed at request of appellant. A person bringing a tax appeal may request that his or her appeal date be changed to a time that is more convenient. The board may choose to go forward with the tax appeal on the scheduled date, but if it decides to postpone the hearing, the board should obtain a written waiver from the appellant of the 14 day requirement.

7. The law requires an inspection committee to visit every property whose tax assessment is being appealed. A three member inspection committee must be appointed by the BCA to inspect the property subject to tax appeal. 32 V.S.A. §4404. The listers are not entitled to attend the site visit, but may do so if the property owner permits. It is best for the committee to view the property as a group – but it is not required by law. The committee must look at both the inside and the outside of the property and then report back to the full BCA their observations within 30 days from the hearing. If, after notice, an appellant refuses to allow the inspection committee to inspect whatever parts of the property (both outside and inside) it wants to inspect, the appeal shall be deemed withdrawn.

8. The tax appeal may be conducted even if the appellant fails to attend the hearing. There are some instances in which an appellant (the landowner) is unable to attend a tax appeal hearing. When this happens the BCA must still hold the hearing, consider the landowner’s written submission, inspect the property and render a decision. If the appellant wishes, he or she may ask someone else to represent him at the hearing. This appointment should be in writing – but so long as the board feels reasonably sure that the person is acting with authority of the landowner the board should allow the appeal to proceed and then confirm with the landowner after the fact that the person had authority to act on the landowner’s behalf.

9. Vacancies in the office of justice of the peace are filled by the governor with recommendations from the political party except when the justice was an independent. Vermont law does not tell us who can make recommendations to fill a justice of the peace vacancy created by the death or resignation of an independent justice. 17 V.S.A. §2623 was not amended when section 2402 was changed to allow citizens to petition for the office of justice of the peace as independents. Section 2623 provides that the town committee of the political party of the justice who created the vacancy may make recommendations to the governor, and then the governor may appoint a qualified person, whether or not the appointee is recommended by the party committee. The law does not suggest a procedure for recommendation for filling the vacancy of an independent justice, although the vacancy will be filled by appointment by the governor.

10. Incompatible office rules apply to village offices. Although 17 V.S.A. §2647, the law on incompatible offices, speaks only of town officials, these rules will also apply to village offices. 1 V.S.A. §139 provides that the laws that apply to towns in Vermont also apply to all municipal corporations including villages. Just as a selectboard member cannot be the tax collector, a trustee cannot be the village tax collector.

11. Village BCA is made up of different officials than the town BCA. The board of civil authority of a village consists of the justices of the peace from town who reside in the village, the trustees of the village, and the village clerk. Other justices of the peace who reside in the town but not in the village cannot be involved in administering village elections. 17 V.S.A. §2103(5).

12. Village voter checklist comes from the town. There is no need for a voter to apply separately to the village clerk to get on the village voter checklist. Rather, the village clerk must refer to the town checklist and include in the village checklist all voters living within the village who are registered to vote in the town. 17 V.S.A. §2126.

13. If one voter is elected both as a selectboard member and a justice of the peace, that person is only entitled to one vote on the board of civil authority. The number of board members on the full board is also reduced by one for purposes of calculating a quorum. For example, if a town normally has a BCA made up of five selectboard members, 15 justices and a town clerk, the board would be 21 members and a quorum for other than election purposes would be 11. If, however, in the same town, two selectboard members were also elected Justices of the Peace, the board would be 19 members. A person cannot cast two votes by virtue of being elected to two different offices. NOTE: For tax appeals, at least three members must be present and then there must be a majority vote of the board members present.

14. Selectboard records and school board records should be maintained separately in the town clerk’s office. The town school district is a separate municipal corporation from the town or city. The records for each municipal corporation should be maintained separately to avoid confusion.

15. Municipal boards must allow the public reasonable opportunity to express its opinion on matters considered by the public body during the meeting, subject to reasonable rules established by the chair. 1 V.S.A. §312(h). The statute makes it clear that a board cannot eliminate all public comment, but boards and citizens may differ in interpreting how much comment and what type of rules provide "reasonable opportunity." We think that it very much depends on the particular subject and circumstances of the meeting. Different rules regarding time and type of participation may be appropriate for different matters under consideration. We recommend that the chair outline the procedures and the board’s rationale for the procedures at the beginning of any meeting at which there are large numbers of citizens who are interested in being heard at the meeting.

16. Unruly citizens may be removed from a public meeting. The chair of a board may ask a citizen to refrain from using inappropriate language or from shouting out and disrupting the meeting. The chair may call for assistance from a constable or other law enforcement officer if a person refuses to abide by the reasonable request for order by the chair. If a person refuses to comply or becomes threatening, the chair may temporarily adjourn the meeting to call for assistance. A public official need not accept or allow inappropriate behavior from the public.

17. There is no state statute that requires towns or town cemeteries to use a public bid process. No law requires public bidding by towns (however, schools must follow bidding rules.) That being said, it is good practice for towns to adopt bidding policies. It is important for townspeople to have confidence that the board is getting the best deal possible for the town, In addition, in small communities when public officials, family members or friends may be interested in selling goods or services to the town, the public bid process allows the public to have confidence in the selection process. (Obviously, a board member cannot vote on the selection decision if he or she or a family member is one of the bidders.)

18. Schools must follow bidding requirements. School boards must publicly advertise or invite three or more bids for all items or services expected to cost over $15,000 for the construction, purchase, lease, or improvement of any school building and for the purchase or lease of any item or items required for supply, equipment, maintenance, repair, or transportation of students. 16 V.S.A.§559. There are additional requirements for school construction contracts which exceed $500,000 set out in subsection (b) of section 559.

19. Landowners can petition for road reclassification. 19 V.S.A. §708 (a) provides that voters and/or landowners in a town can bring in a petition of five percent of the voters to force the selectboard to consider reclassifying a particular highway in the town. The law is clear that a class four highway need not be reclassified to class three merely because there exists within a town one or more class three highways with characteristics similar to the class four highway, and if the town decides to reclassify it can require the landowners who petitioned for the reclassification to pay all or part of the cost of upgrading the road. If the selectboard decide against reclassification the landowners can appeal the decision to court which might order reclassification if it believes that the selectboard’s decision was discriminatory.

20. Road reclassification appeals go to district court. If citizens are unhappy with a board decision to reclassify a road the citizens may appeal the decision to the district court. 19 VSA § 726. The voters may not petition for a public vote on the matter since highway decisions are left to the discretion of the selectboard. The district court will appoint a three member commission to review the board’s decision about whether the reclassification is in the public interest and then will make a recommendation to the court.

21. Only landowner may cut growth in the highway right of way without town permission. 19 V.S.A. § 901 provides that "a person, other than the abutting landowner, may not cut, trim, remove or otherwise damage any grasses, shrubs, vines, or trees growing within the limits of a state or town highway, without first having obtained the consent of the agency for state highways or the board of selectboard for town highways." In some cases a utility may be given an easement that includes the right to trim or cut the shrubs and trees.

22. Town may not remove shade or fruit trees from highway right of way if set out or marked by abutting landowner unless safety or utility requires. The selectboard of a town are required to remove trees and bushes which obstruct the view of the highway ahead or that cause damage to the highway or that are objectionable from a material or scenic standpoint. The law provides, however, that shade and fruit trees that have been set out or marked by the abutting landowners must be preserved if the usefulness or safety of the highway is not impaired. Young trees standing at a proper distance from the roadbed and from each other, and banks and hedges of bushes that serve as a protection to the highway or add beauty to the roadside, must also be preserved. 19 V.S.A. § 904.