1. Office Hours May Be Altered During Clerk’s Vacation. Even town clerks can go on vacation – provided they make an arrangement to have someone else – an assistant – open up the office and the vault in order to make the public records available. No law requires the assistant clerk to maintain the same hours as the clerk (in one instance, the assistant, who ordinarily works very part time for the town, will open the office on request.) So long as the clerk posts an advance notice to let the public know what the temporary times or arrangement will be, and the records are available during his or her absence, the legal requirement that "the files and records in the office of the clerk shall be available for inspection upon proper request at all reasonable hours" will be met. 24 V.S.A. § 1165.

2. Study Committees Formed by the Board are Subject to the Open Meeting Law. The open meeting law treats committees formed by a public board as public bodies. Accordingly, if the selectboard appoints a citizen committee to study and report back its findings on an issue such as developing the local riverfront into a park, or changing the municipal charter, the meetings of that committee must be publicly noticed – just like the meetings of the board that created it. The committee must also take and make available within five days minutes of each meeting. 1 V.S.A. § 310.

3. When two boards meet jointly both must publicly notice the meeting. Whenever a quorum of a board gather to discuss the business of their board it must publicly notice the meeting as required by the open meeting law. This means that if two boards meet jointly each board must call a special meeting of their board and notify the board members, and any press that requested notification, and post notice of the meeting in the clerk’s office and two or more places in town within 24 hours of the meeting. 1 V.S.A. § 312.

4. Board members may not vote by proxy. There is no law that would permit proxy voting on local boards. A person who cannot make it to a meeting can participate by telephone conference, in which case they would count toward a quorum. 1 V.S.A. § 312.

5. Entrance or Exit Checklist Must Be Kept For Five Years. Vermont law requires the town to keep for five years following an election the entrance or exit checklist from the election. This checklist must be made available at cost to the public. 17 V.S.A. §2590(e). Although the ballots and tally sheets may be destroyed 90 days after a local election and 22 months after an election including federal offices, the entrance or exit checklist together with the statement of discrepancies must be retained for five years.

6. Polling places must be in a public space unless otherwise decided by the voters. Vermont law provides that every polling place must be in an accessible public place as designated by the Board of Civil Authority. However, the voters may designate different polling places if an article is placed on the warning for an annual or special meeting. 17 V.S.A. §§2501, 2502. Note that many laws, including the Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires all polling places to be accessible to the disabled. If your polling place(s) is not accessible, the BCA needs to designate a different accessible polling place, such as a school. We strongly encourage Boards of Civil Authority and/or town voters to do everything possible to choose polling places that are nonsectarian whenever possible. Although rulings in court cases in other states have upheld the use of a church all-6 when absolutely no other public place is available, it is a best practice to designate a nonsectarian public place. In our times, if sued by a voter over a polling place, it will be difficult to defend the use of a church if other accessible public buildings exist in the district.

7. A new law permits a polling place to be outside the voting district. 17 V.S.A. § 2502(a) has been changed to allow towns that have more than one polling place to allow more than one district to vote at a particular polling place. (The old law only permitted voting outside ones district when all the districts voted in one location.) This change in law will help communities that have districts in residential areas that may not have an accessible public building for use as a polling place.

8. The selectboard and school board may loan money to each other to help with cash flow.

16 V.S.A. §429. When the school district or selectboard loans money to the other this loan must be secured by a note signed by the boards. The note shall stipulate the terms of the loan and the notes must be payable upon demand or mature within three months from the date of issue. There is no requirement that such loans be made – but where it works for the two municipal entities it can be a convenient way to manage cash flow issues.

9. The Selectboard or School Board can warn a special meeting to reconsider the same Article as many times as it wishes during a year - except for bond votes. Petitions by 5% of town voters requesting reconsideration can only be done once on the same Article or issue during a twelve-month period. In contrast, the legislative body can take an issue back to the voters more than once if they believe that passage of the article is in the best interests of the town or school district. 17 V.S.A. §2661. The only exception to this rule is with bond votes. A board can only bring a bond vote to the voters two times during a 12-month period.

10. BCA notice requirements are more stringent than the rule for other boards. A special rule exists for noticing meetings of the board of civil authority. 24 V.S.A. § 801 provides in part that "meetings of the board shall be called by the town clerk, or by one of the selectmen, on application, by giving written notice to each member, and by posting a notice in two or more public places in the town at least five days previous to the meeting." In contrast, for a regular meeting of other municipal boards all that is required is that the time, place and location of the regular meeting be designated by the board, and be publicly available upon request. 1 V.S.A. § 312(c)(1). We believe that if the BCA must take action and there is not time to use the regular meeting warning provisions in 24 V.S.A.§801 that the board may use the procedure for noticing special meetings of public bodies. A special meeting must be noticed by notifying the board members as well as the public and any press that has asked to be notified of the time place and purpose of the meeting at least 24 hours before the meeting. 1 V.S.A. § 312(c)(2). There does not have to be a formal agenda , but the general purpose of the meeting must be provided in the meeting notice. The notice must be posted in or near the municipal clerk’s office and in at least two other public places in the municipality.

11. BCA must appoint assistant election officials if needed to staff the polling place on Election Day. If members of the board of civil authority will not be able to fully staff the polling places on Election Day, then prior to the day of the election, the BCA must appoint a sufficient number of voters from each district to serve as assistant election officials in each polling place. 17 V.S.A. §2454. The board shall make every effort to appoint an equal number of legal voters of the town (and district) from each major party. These election officials must be sworn in before the polls open and activity begins.

12. Town clerk generally serves as presiding officer at the primary and general elections. The Town Clerk is be the presiding officer unless the town has previously voted at an annual meeting to provide otherwise. 17 V.S.A. §2452(a). However, if a town clerk is unavailable to serve, then the Board of Civil Authority must promptly appoint a voter of the town to serve as Presiding Officer. Also, if the town has more than one polling place, the board of civil authority must appoint a presiding officer for each additional polling place. 17 V.S.A.§2452(b)

13. The Town Clerk adds names to the checklist expeditiously upon receipt of an application to the checklist. 17 V.S.A.§2144b was amended effective July, 2003, to require the town clerk to add names to the checklist as (s)he receives the voter registration applications. The clerk forwards the application to the BCA only when the he or she is unable to determine that an applicant meets the requirements to register to vote in town. If the applicant appears to meet the qualifications, the town clerk adds the name to the checklist as soon as possible after receipt of the application. These changes are reported to the BCA at the time the checklist is reviewed prior to the election.

14. Presiding Officers must receive training! The regular presiding officer or an assistant election official designated by the board of civil authority must attend at least one workshop presented by the Office of the Secretary of State every two years. 17 V.S.A. §2457(b). Workshops for the Summer of 2004 will be held as follows:

Please Note: The dates for the Randolph and Williston workshops were inadvertently transposed on the "directions sheet" sent to Town Clerks. The correct dates for all workshops were given on the postcards, town clerk memo, and as listed above.

15. A Planning Commission with many vacancies should be made smaller. Planning commissions may be as small as 3 voting members or as large as nine members. 24 V.S.A. § 4322. Whenever a selectboard has a hard time filling vacancies on a local board it should consider reducing the size of the board. This is especially true with the planning commission. This is because when a seven or nine person commission has multiple vacancies it will have problems getting the quorum it needs to take action. The board can reduce the size of the commission by resolution unless the planning commission is an elected board.

16. The selectboard should appoint a board of alternates to fill in when there are absences on the Zoning Board or Development Review Board. Selectboard members can appoint a board of alternates to fill in on the zoning or development review board when members have conflicts of interest or are absent. Selectboard members may serve as alternates, as can members of the planning commission. The law does not permit the appointment of alternatives to serve on the planning commission. 24 V.S.A. § 4461(b).

17. The law does not yet permit conducting meetings solely through the web. Vermont’s open meeting law requires that all meetings of public bodies be open to public observation and participation. This contemplates that the meetings be in a physical location where members of the public can go. The law permits board members to participate by conference call – but there is no provision of law that would permit web conferences. We believe that the law would permit a town to conduct combination meetings - where the public and members of a board gather in a public place in the town to hold a hearing and people can call in to the meeting - or perhaps e-mail questions (while viewing a live web feed). 1 V.S.A. § 312.

18. Vacancies are filled only until the next election. When the selectboard appoints someone to fill a vacancy the appointment is only until the next election at which time a person is elected for the rest of the term. 24 V.S.A. § 961 requires the legislative body to post notice of a vacancy in two or more public places in town within ten days of the creation of the vacancy. The purpose of this notice is to permit the public to petition for a special meeting to fill the vacancy. In the meantime the selectboard may appoint to fill the vacancy. If no special election is petitioned or called by the selectboard the person will serve until the next annual meeting of the town.

19. Special elections of officers by Australian Ballot must be warned with enough time to petition to get on the ballot. When a special election is warned to fill a vacancy in a town where offices are voted by Australian Ballot, the Selectboard should post a public notice giving the public enough time to bring in nominating petitions to run for the office that is to be filled. Nominating petitions can be filed no later than 5:00 on the sixth Monday preceding the day of the election. Note that the selectboard has fifteen days to set the meeting date, and the meeting must be warned for not less than 30 nor more than 40 days. 17 V.S.A. § 2641, 2643.

20. Conservation Commissions may be created by the vote of the municipality or by vote of the legislative body. 24 V.S.A. § 4501 provides that a conservation commission may be created at any time when a municipality votes to create one, or, if the charter of a municipality permits it, when the legislative body of the municipality votes to create one. A conservation commission may have not less than three nor more than nine members. The statute specifies that members are appointed for four-year terms. Unlike the planning commission or zoning board, all conservation commission members must be residents of the municipality. 24 V.S.A. § 4502.

21. Selectboard can alter size of conservation commission under some circumstances. When a conservation commission is created by resolution of the selectboard the board can later, by resolution, change the size of the commission. If the size is reduced, any vacant seats will first be eliminated, and any additional reductions will occur as the terms of the board members expire. The authority of the selectboard to change the size of a conservation commission is less clear in cases where the commission was created by vote of the municipality. It is clear that if the vote to create the commission included a reference to the size of the commission that this cannot be altered without a vote of the municipality. However, if the commission was created without reference to a particular size then it is likely that a court would find that the selectboard has the authority to increase or decrease the membership, as it deems appropriate.

22. Treasurer must consult with selectboard when investing town funds. The town treasurer must keep an account of "moneys, bonds, notes and evidences of debt paid or delivered to him, and of moneys paid out by him for the town and the town school district." 24 V.S.A. § 1571. In addition, the law provides that "moneys received by the town treasurer on behalf of the town may be invested and reinvested by the treasurer with the approval of the legislative body." 24 V.S.A. § 1571. As a practical matter this means that the town treasurer may not change any interest bearing bank accounts without the approval of the legislative body.

23. Residents have the right to confidentiality of E-911 records. Vermont law provides that "if a municipality has adopted conventional street addressing for enhanced 911 addressing purposes, the municipality shall ensure that an individual who so requests will not have his or her street address and name linked in a municipal public record, but the individual shall be required to provide a mailing address." A request for confidentiality must be made in writing and be filed with the municipal clerk. The request itself is confidential. 30 V.S.A. § 7059(d).

24. E-911 confidentiality option applies only to current records. When an individual chooses to exercise his or her confidentiality option as provided by 30 V.S.A. § 7059(d) it will not apply retroactively to records that were properly recorded prior to a person exercising his or her confidentiality option. Section 7059(d) The law applies to current and future records. While it contains no provision requiring the town to rewrite history by expunging information from old records (like former grand lists) the official is obligated to make a good faith effort to change the current year’s lists and to ensure that the individual’s confidentiality is protected going forward. (This opinion has been sanctioned by the E9-1-1- board.)

25. Town is not required to take down tree in right of way. In one town a landowner insisted that the town remove a tree that was in a highway right of way that the landowner believed was a danger to his or her property. No law requires a town to take down a tree in a highway right of way. Note that the law permits landowners to take down limbs of trees that overhang their property. Title 24 Chapter 67 gives towns the authority to manage trees in rights of ways. The law creates a process for dealing with these issues, but does not obligate the town to remove, or pay for the removal of any of these trees.

26. Town must go to court to collect unpaid fines. When fines for tickets issued for violations of municipal ordinances go unpaid, the town must go to court to get a judgment order against the scofflaw. The court can attach property of the violator, which can be taken a sold to pay the fines. The court can also put a lien on the property of the violator.

The Senatorial or Representative Clerk must FAX, if possible, and then mail the original consent form for each candidate to the Office of the Secretary of State immediately. (Fax to (802) 828-5171) The Clerk shall examine the petitions to see that they contain a sufficient number of legible signatures. However, unless the Clerk has reason to believe that the petitions are defective, the Clerk does not have to verify signatures on the Primary Petitions. 17 V.S.A. §2357. The Clerk shall retain the Primary Petitions until 30 days after the General Election, and can then destroy the petitions. 17 V.S.A. §2360

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(91st day after Town Meeting election) In towns using Australian Ballot, Town Clerk may open and destroy used Town Meeting ballots and tally sheets, except as otherwise provided by law. 17:2590(d)

June 30: End of fiscal year for all school districts, charter provisions not-withstanding, and for municipalities that have adopted July 1 through June 30 fiscal year calendar. 32:1, 24:1683(b)(c)

June 30: Within 30 days after completion of a town fiscal year the Town Clerk shall publicly disclose the total amout of fees received as part of his or her compensation. 24:1179

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