Selectmen are NOT omnipotent!

Welcome to another contributor under the Publius byline.

Publius: Article Submission please

Seenitdoneit said:


One of the most common mistakes layman make with the law is that they take a single line out of a statute, and twist it to cover their own excesses. Atkinson's selectmen Consentino, Childs, Sapia, along with the advise of unofficial consiglierre Polito, have gotten really good at this. And the reason they have gotten away with it is that noone has taken the time, energy, and expense of taking them to court to get a Judge to rule on it.

For the record the selectmen ARE NOT the "general agents" for the people. They have specific enumerated powers that they can accomplish without calling a special town meeting to ask the people's permission.

Every Statute(RSA) has annotations at the bottom. If you have access to legal references, they tell you the case law that defines the statute, and how it is to be interpreted. Here are the selectmen's duties;

1.) Perhaps their most important function is to call the meeting.

2.) To manage the "prudential" affairs of the town. This means filling in the details necesary to carry out the votes taken at town meeting. "the power to act, while broad, is not unlimited. The selectmen are not the general agents of the town and therefore have no broad authority to act with the full power of the town." Moulton v. Beals, 98 NH 461 (1954).

3.) RSA 41:8 "a majority of the selectmen shall be competent at all times." This does not mean mentally competent, although that would be nice too. It means that for the board to take an action, any action, such as buying an SUV, a majortiy of the board must vote, and RSA 91A further states that this vote must be taken in a public meeting. There is much case law on this ranging all the way back to 1854.

Here are the selectmen's statutory responsibilities;

1.) Laying out of roads and highways. RSA 231:8-19 cover this, RSA 41:11 includes in this setting speed limits, and weight restrictions. They also braodly supervise the road agent. This means the selectmen set out the broad goals and policies for the road agent to accomplish and follow. NOT that they call him into every meeting to assasinate his character over some new imagined evil.

2.) Condemning buildings deemed hazardous. RSA 155B allows this authority.

3.) Licensing. There are many RSA's covering a number of lisence types, such as junkyards, movie theatres, etc.

4.) Health Regulations. RSA 147, gives the selectmen and the health officer the power together of a board of health.

5.) Setting Fees. RSA 41:9 allows the selectmen to set fees such as permits, lisences and the such.

6.) Set Welfare guidelines. This is inherently a selectmen function, which in the case of elderly affairs they have farmed out without oversight to the chief.

7.) Manage use of town property. This is self-explanatory.

8.) Financial Accounting and safeguarding. The selectmen are authorized to spend the budgeted money. They must spend it wisely, and keep true and accurate records, and they are accountable at all times to the legislative body(the people)

9.) Appoint officers. This includes planning board members, ZBA members, inspectors.

10.) Election Duties. The selectmen are responsible for the phyical structure of the polling place. the set up, and layout. However RSA 659:9 designates the moderator as the town's chief election official.

11.) Setting ordinances. This one is conditional in towns of less than 10,000 population. If the legislative body has given the selectmen the authority they may enact ordinances. I don't believe Atkinson has ever done that.

12.) Taxation. The selectmen must report to the tax collector, the assessed value of all property in town, and all abatements they have granted.

13.) Litigation. The selectmen MUST work to resolve and/or defend the town against all ations brought against the town for its actions or those of it's employees, or boards. This is why selectman Sapia's offer and provision of sworn affidavits to help Mr. Polito's case AGAINST the town was so heinous.

That is the breadth of their statutory authority. They do not "run the town". They do not have authority over other elected officals, except in cetain circumstances.

AUTHORITY OVER OTHER ELECTED OFFICIALS;

For the most part the elected officials have their own statutory authority, and regulations, and are INDEPENDENT OF THE SELECTMEN. Officials like the town clerk, tax collector, and treasurer, the budget committee, the conflict of interest committee, the library trustees; the selectmen have NO AUTHORITY OVER.

The selectmen can not interfere with the exercise of duties that are, by statute, delegated to those officials.


hopefully this will help the residents understand when the selectmen are overstepping thier bounds.