Committee Asks Itself: How Can We Do Better?

In a first for Belmont government, an important town board will be asking itself an important question: Are we the best that we can be?

Warrant Committee members will soon be asked to fill out self-assessment form designed by member Elizabeth Allison.

"This type of evaluation form is to use as a goal to be the best committee we can be," Allison said.

"We can use it to look at how we work as a group and how we can improve."

The assessment plan as well as its advocating the use of program budgeting in town finances has shown a willingness by the Warrant Committee to include a brand of management and businesses approaches that has not been seen in town government.

Selectman Mark Paolillo has also been publicaly pushing greater use of new tactics to make government more efficient including regionalization of services and program budgets, a method of budgeting expenditures to meet programmatic objectives rather than simply spending on a line-item basis.

The committee members will fill out the form – with six categories – anonymously. Once the information is collected, it will be used as a process to begin their work in the fall, said Allison.

Town department heads will also fill out a section of the form concerning and present their information to Town Accountant Barbara Hagg who will pass it on to the new committee chairman.

The self-assessment form will include:

• Evaluating the effectiveness of the Warrant Committee according to size and current sub-committee structure;

• When meetings are held, items included on the agendas, and how the committee communicates with the Board of Selectmen and School Committee;

• The amount of time the committee discusses budget items (currently 80 to 85 percent of the time, 10 to 15 percent on non-budget warrant articles and perhaps 5 percent on structural issues and whether or not the mix should be changed;

• Suggestions for the basis upon which the town moderator selects members of the Warrant Committee; and

• Town executives perspectives of the Warrant Committee such as whether or not the group articulates concerns to management in a clear and respectful manner, identifying areas or issues which the committee focuses too much or too little and which areas the committee should be looked to for guidance and in what areas are their contributions most valuable to town management.

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Wednesday night was the Warrant Committee's last meeting of the fiscal year but it was the final one for Chairman Philip Curtis.

He will be moving to Cambridge and told the other members how much he enjoyed serving with them and appreciated their help during the year.