Goal: More efficient and responsive town government.

The League will support the hiring of a qualified town engineer. Realizing that changing the status of an elected or appointed position has long-lasting effects, the League believes that there should be a review including the following issues:

•Whether the position is administrative, requiring specific skills, or policy making

•Whether the change is cost effective

•Whether there are alternatives for restructuring the office.

The League believes that, in general, policy-making positions should be elected and administrative positions should be appointed. The League supports the use of professional town administrators who deal with overall administrative functions of the town but are not policy makers - they carry out the policy set by elected boards. In addition to the performance of routine tasks under the heading of general, financial, and personnel management and public relations, the League believes that the following duties should be included in the responsibilities of those positions, which fall under the definition of professional administrator:

•Recommendation of reorganization of administrative structure
•Supervision of bylaw enforcement
•Liaison among town boards and departments
•Recommendation of policy
•Central purchasing agent
•Assistance in budget preparation
•Recruitment for appointments
•Contract negotiations
•Application preparation

The League supports a periodic review of the structure of town government.