In accordance with MGL c. 41, § 106B, there is hereby established a Capital Planning Committee ("Committee") comprised of five members: one Select Board member or a designee appointed by the Select Board; two Finance Committee members or designees appointed by the Finance Committee; and two residents at-large appointed by the Select Board.
[Adopted 5-3-2017 ATM by Art. 38]
Committee members shall serve three-year terms, which shall be staggered. The initial term for each original Committee member shall be one Select Board member for one year, one Finance Committee member and one resident at-large for two years, and one Finance Committee member and one resident at-large for three years. All subsequent appointments shall be for a three-year term commencing on July 1. In the case of a mid-term vacancy, the appointing authority shall select a new member for the remainder of the unexpired term and may re-appoint that person or select another for the term beginning July 1. Each appointing authority shall notify the Town Clerk of all appointments and re-appointments in a timely fashion.
The Committee shall receive, evaluate and prioritize all capital expenditure requests for the next fiscal year and report out its recommendations in accordance with policies approved by the Finance Committee and adopted by the Select Board. The policies shall address, but are not to be limited to:
A.
The definition of a capital expenditure and under what circumstances the Committee may make exceptions;
B.
The development and details of an annual capital budget calendar;
C.
Responsibility for developing a standardized request form, distributing forms and communicating with departments, boards, committees and commissions regarding submissions;
D.
The treatment of expenditure requests submitted after established deadlines;
E.
The process for evaluating and prioritizing requests, and the steps for recommending and approving capital expenditures for Town Meeting consideration;
F.
The role of subjective opinion and objective criteria in the evaluation process;
G.
Potential funding sources;
H.
The form a capital article or articles take in the Town Meeting Warrant.
With the exception of a request that the Select Board deems to be a time-sensitive emergency or an article originating through the citizen petition process, a capital expenditure request shall not be placed before or considered by the Annual or a Special Town Meeting unless it has been formally presented to and reviewed by the Committee.
The Committee shall develop a multi-year capital plan based on information submitted by Town departments, boards, committees and commissions and shall revisit and update the plan annually. Policies approved by the Finance Committee and adopted by the Select Board are not limited to, but shall include: