Town Meeting-Selectmen-Manager Form
This document is reprinted with permission from "The Manager Plan in Maine" published by the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy. Copies of the complete book may be obtained by calling the Center at (207) 581-1646.
More than one quarter of all Maine municipalities and two-thirds of those with managers operate under the town meeting-selectmen-manager form of government. This form of government is most frequently found in municipalities with populations between 1,000 and 3,000. Under this form, the town meeting is vested with the general legislative powers of the town; while a board of three, five or seven part-time selectmen, acting as a body, is the plural executive agency which collectively interprets the wishes of the town meeting between sessions. Statute now vests municipal officers with authority to adopt ordinances regulating public ways, property and vehicles (30 M.R.S.A., Section 2151 (2-3)). The town meeting determines policies of the town and the board of selectmen may interpret them on a day-to-day basis. The extent of discretion and leadership exercised by boards of selectmen, however, will vary among towns and will depend somewhat on recent history, town traditions and the particular nature of matters under consideration.
The administrative duties of the town are typically distributed among the board of selectmen, the manager and other elected officers such as clerks, treasurers, tax collectors, etc. At least 14 Maine towns have the town meeting-selectmen-manager form by virtue of pre-home rule special legislative (act) charters. Many such charters were adopted prior to the passage of the town manager enabling act in 1939. From 1939 until 1970, all towns operating under this form of government did so under the town manager enabling act. Of those municipalities adopting this form of government since 1970, approximately half have adopted this form of government through the town manager enabling act.
The town of Sanford operates under a limited town meeting form of government with a five member board of selectmen. These representatives are elected from districts to attend the town meeting. Any voter may speak at the town meeting, but only the elected representatives may vote. While two other Maine towns once operated under this form of government (Old Orchard Beach and Caribou), only Sanford continues the limited town meeting today.
Over the years, certain defects in the operation of town government under the 1939 act, as amended, became evident. For example, the act did not clearly define the duties of the manager. Dr. Dow made this point in a 1958 newsletter article:
Under Maine law the voters in town meeting may decide what offices the manager shall hold, or may delegate this authority to the selectmen. Thus the authority of the manager in a Maine town may vary from year to year, and may be quite different from his neighbor in the next town. The voters may continue to elect the treasurer, and the selectmen may decide to give the manager the job of road commissioner while appointing someone else tax collector. All sorts of combinations are possible, many of them resulting in a job which may resemble a chief water boy more than it does a chief administrative officer. In too many Maine towns the duties of selectmen and manager have never been clearly delineated, with buck passing, confusion and inefficiency the inevitable consequence (Dow, 1958, pp. 3-4).
Among other problems with the plan was the lack of a defined role of the board of selectmen vis-a-vis administration and the failure to delegate to the manager sufficient formal authority to implement policies.
The 1969 act designated the manager as "chief executive and administrative officer of the municipality," responsible to the selectmen for administration of all offices under the selectmen. The act gives the manager some authority to carry out this responsibility through the power to "appoint, subject to the confirmation of the selectmen, supervise, control and remove the heads of departments under the control of the selectmen." The manager also was given authority to "appoint, supervise, control and remove all other officials, subordinates and assistants." Other new duties assigned to the manager were: to attend all meetings and hearings of the town, to collect data necessary for budget preparation and to assist, insofar as possible, residents and taxpayers in discovering their lawful remedies in cases involving complaints of unfair vendor, administrative and governmental practices.
This act includes provisions dealing with managerial qualifications, tenure, absence and disability, and defines the municipality's ordinance power in administrative matters. It also defines the role of the selectmen and clarifies the relationship of the selectmen to the manager and the administrative organization. The board of selectmen as a body is vested with the executive and administrative powers of the town, but the board is required to deal with the administration of the town solely through the manager. The selectmen are forbidden to give orders to managerial subordinates either publicly or privately, but the selectmen may conduct investigations into the conduct of any official or department on any matter related to the welfare of the municipality.
As originally passed in 1969, the new town manager law would have required that only the selectmen and the school committee be elected. All other officers of the town including the clerk, treasurer, assessors and overseers of the poor would have been appointed by the manager, subject to confirmation by the board of selectmen under the law as passed in 1969. In the 1970 special session of the 104th Legislature, this provision was amended to provide that unless the town otherwise designates, the moderator, assessors, overseers of the poor, clerk and treasurer continue to be elected.
The effect of the revised act as amended, therefore, is to permit towns at their own discretion to make all functional town offices accountable to the manager through broad managerial appointing authority. This is consistent with the manager's role as "chief executive and administrative official of the municipality." Without the 1970 amendment, this arrangement would have been mandatory, but with the law as it exists today, this arrangement may be adopted only if so desired by the town. A 1970 survey indicated extensive limitations in the authority of managers to appoint functional officers in Maine town meeting-selectmen-manager municipalities. A 1991 survey identified similar, but less extensive, appointment limitations. The definition of expanded managerial duties and the role of the selectmen in the new act eliminates some of the ambiguity and varied practices prevalent under the old act.