[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of Dedham
as Ch. 7 of the 1996 By-laws; amended 11-18-2013 STM by Art. 16. Subsequent amendments
noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Town meetings — See Ch.
85.
All officers, boards and committees of the Town shall cause
records of their doings and accounts to be kept in suitable books,
and all multiple member bodies shall maintain accurate records of
its meetings, said records to be filed with the Town Clerk and made
available to the public. Said books shall be kept in their respective
places in the Town offices and the libraries, and shall not be removed
therefrom. Said books shall, unless otherwise provided by law, be
open to public inspection at any reasonable time, but shall remain
during such inspection under the supervision of the officer, board
or committee having custody thereof.
The Director of Finance shall keep among the records of his
office the following:
A. A detailed register of all insurance policies and surety bonds held
by the Town which shall show the property covered by insurance, the
names under bond, the names of the companies involved, the amount,
expiration date and premium of each bond and policy;
B. A detailed record of the Town indebtedness which shall show the objects
for which such indebtedness was incurred, the date incurred, the date
of maturity, the rate of interest thereon and the provisions for payment
thereof.
[Amended 11-17-2014 ATM
by Art. 18]
All officers, boards, departments and committees of the Town
authorized to spend money shall annually report thereon in writing
in such manner as to give the citizens a fair understanding of the
objects and methods of such expenditures, referring, however, to the
report of the Director of Finance for detailed statements of receipts
and expenditures. Such report shall be submitted, through the Town
Manager, to the Selectmen no later than 10 days after the close of
each year for inclusion in the Annual Town Report, and a copy thereof
shall be submitted to the Finance Director.
The report of the Treasurer-Collector shall include a classified
statement of the Town indebtedness and business for which it was incurred,
shall specifically state the objects for which such indebtedness may
have been increased during the preceding year, a statement indicating
the amounts required for the payment of interest on the Town debt
and for the payment of such portions of the Town debt as may become
due during the succeeding year; and shall also set forth:
A. A list of all notes issued during the year and the purposes for which
the money was borrowed, giving the dates, amount, term, rate of interest,
time of maturity, the premium, if any received thereon, and the names
of the parties from whom the funds were borrowed;
B. A list of all notes paid during the year and a list of all outstanding
notes with the dates upon which they will mature;
C. A full exhibit of all monies, properties and securities which may
be placed in his charge by virtue of any statute or by-law or by virtue
of any gift, devise, bequest or deposit;
D. A statement of any amount received by the Town from sources other
than taxation during the preceding year.
The Director of Finance shall, immediately after the close of
each financial year, prepare a detailed report of all receipts and
expenditures of the Town during the financial year next preceding,
showing separately payments made from the proceeds of loans as outlays
for capital improvements, including those of the funds managed for
the Town by trustees or commissioners and showing also the amount
of each specific appropriation and expenditures there from, the purposes
for which expenditures have been made, a statement of any change in
the amount of the Town debt, and a statement of all indebtedness incurred
and not paid at the end of the financial year next preceding.
[Amended 11-17-2014 ATM
by Art. 18]
The Selectmen shall each year cause to be printed as a Town
document an Annual Town Report for the fiscal year next preceding.
The Annual Town Report shall contain the annual reports of the Selectmen,
the Finance and Warrant Committee, the School Committee, the Treasurer-Collector,
the Director of Finance and of all officers, boards and committees
of the Town required by these by-laws and a list of the salaries of
all Town employees; statements of all funds belonging to the Town
or held for the benefit of its inhabitants; a statement of the liabilities
of the Town on bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness or otherwise
and all indebtedness authorized but not incurred and the purposes
thereof; a statement of transfers made to or from any appropriation;
a copy of the auditor's report of the annual audit of the Town's
financial books and records, including the financial statement and
management letter; abstracts of the records of the meetings of the
Town held since publication of the last Annual Town Report; a specific
statement of Town or County ways laid out during the preceding year;
a statement of what ways laid out or accepted remain to be constructed;
statement of damages assessed against and paid by the Town during
the preceding year; a statement of all outstanding claims against
the Town; a statement of what actions have been brought against and
on behalf of the Town, what cases have been compromised or settled
and the current status of all suits at law involving the Town or any
of its interests; and such other matters as the said report is required
by law to contain or may be inserted by the Selectmen under the discretion
granted them by law.
The Selectmen of the Town shall direct that the by-laws and
standing votes of the Town, the rules or regulations adopted by any
officer, board or committee of the Town, and each decennial assessors'
evaluation list be printed separately or as a part of the Annual Town
Report.
The Selectmen shall, subject to appropriation, cause a reasonable
number of copies of the Annual Town Report to be printed and made
available for distribution to the taxpayers of the Town; further,
to the extent technologically feasible, the Annual Town Report shall
be posted on the official Town website.
All written or printed reports required by these by-laws shall
be filed with the Town Clerk and so preserved by the Town Clerk in
suitable files readily accessible to citizens of the Town at all reasonable
times.
It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Town that the
inhabitants of the Town have retained certain rights of privacy in
the use and dissemination of public records and that to safeguard
those rights this section has been adopted. No person employed by
the Town or performing services for the Town shall use or disseminate
or allow access to any information collected, acquired or created
in the performance of official, contractual or volunteer duties except
for the purpose for which the information was collected, acquired
or created or for a purpose expressly provided for by law; provided,
however, that nothing in this section shall infringe or impair public
access to nor otherwise alter the status of any public record nor
allow or require the public disclosure of any information which is
not a public record; provided, further, that if the Board of Selectmen,
after a public hearing, finds that the public purpose clearly outweighs
the inhabitant's privacy interests, the Board may grant to the holder
of the records a waiver for a specific use, limited in scope and time,
and for such purpose may require that information contained in the
records be made available only in the aggregate and with full anonymity
of individual records and may make such other conditions as will protect
the privacy interests of the inhabitants of the Town.