Any elected or appointed officer of any board or commission, who has a financial or personal interest, direct or indirect, in any contract, transaction or decision of the board or commission upon which such person serves, shall disclose such interest to such board or commission for recording upon its official records and any such person shall be thereby disqualified from participation in the awarding, assignment or deliberation of any such contract, transaction, or decision.
No Selectman or former Selectman elected after the effective date of this Charter may be appointed to any compensated position with the Town for a period of one year following his last day in office.
The Board shall appoint an Ethics Commission and shall maintain and periodically review a Code of Ethics to govern the conduct of elected and appointed officers, directors, employees, and board and commission members of the Town.
(Amended November 3, 2020, effective December 3, 2020)
Unless otherwise provided, each incumbent member of a board, commission or agency as of the effective date hereof shall continue to hold the office or position to which elected or appointed until succeeded by a duly qualified person. If such person is not so succeeded, he shall serve no longer than the remainder of his unexpired term.
The Town Clerk shall notify in writing the members of elective and appointive bodies that their successors have qualified as soon as such determinations are made.
Officers of elective bodies shall be chosen at the first meeting of such body held after the commencement of the term of members elected at a regular biennial town election.
Powers and duties imposed by whatever source on boards, commissions and agencies in existence before the effective date of this Charter shall continue to reside in each such body unless it is abolished or superseded by a newly-created body, in which event they shall cease or be thereafter exercised and discharged by said new body. The Town Clerk shall promptly notify in writing the members of such bodies that successors have qualified.
Upon the qualification of a successor board, commission or agency, all records, property and equipment whatsoever of such superseded body shall be transferred and delivered intact to the successor body.
In the event of abolishment, such body, whether elective or appointive, shall continue to perform its duties until provisions have been made for the performance by other bodies or offices of the Town. Records, property and equipment of abolished bodies shall be transferred and delivered to the First Selectman.
All employees of the Town on the effective date of this Charter shall retain such positions pending action by the Board or the appropriate officer charged by this Charter with powers of appointment and removal. Any provision of law in force at the time this Charter shall take effect, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this Charter, in relation to personnel, appointments, ranks, grades, tenure of office, promotions, removals, pension and retirement rights, civil rights or any other rights or privileges of employees of the Town or any office, department or agency thereof, shall continue to be in effect, until or unless amended or repealed in accordance with the provisions of this Charter. Any employee holding a position as defined in this Charter on its effective date, shall be retained without preliminary or performance tests but shall thereafter be subject in all respects to the provisions of the Charter.
No action or proceeding, civil or criminal, pending on the effective date of this Charter brought by or against the Town or any commission, board, department or officer thereof, shall be affected or abated by the adoption of this Charter or by anything herein contained; but all such actions or proceedings may be continued notwithstanding that functions, powers and duties of any commission, board, department or officer which shall have been a party thereto may, by or under this Charter, be assigned or transferred to another commission, board, department or the officer to which such functions, powers and duties have been assigned or transferred by or under this Charter.
If any section or part of any section of this Charter shall be held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such holding shall not affect the remainder of this Charter nor the context in which said section or part thereof so held invalid may appear, except to the extent that an entire section or part of a section may be inseparably connected in meaning and effect with the section or part of the section to which such ruling shall directly apply.
This Charter may be amended in the manner prescribed by Chapter 99 in the General Statutes as amended from time to time. Any amendments to this Charter shall be incorporated with the dates of their adoption.
This Charter shall become effective thirty days after ratification by the electors of the Town to be held in the manner prescribed by the General Statutes of the State.