Excited for First Meeting

My first meeting as one of your Salem Selectmen is tonight. We have a Non-Public session at 6:00 PM followed by our Public Session at 7:00 PM. I'm excited to get to work and during the meeting I plan on bringing up the creation of a public comment period at all future governing body meeting agendas as laid out in the newly adopted Town Charter. We also need to place on the town website applications for the new committees established by the Charter for the full Town Council to appoint in May. Those committees would be: 

Communication Committee

Economic Development Committee

Ethics Committee

I will also start a conversation tonight that I hope to have a vote on during our April 3rd meeting - the creation of a regular performance audit schedule that covers our entire town. 

In an effort to increase efficiency and put in place best practices for the Town of Salem, I am calling for the commencement of regular & comprehensive departmental audits that review the policies, practices, and procedures of each department on a regular and recurring basis. This effort will explore opportunities for efficiencies, policy changes, and identify best practices of each department to best inform the governing body of our town’s performance. Salem is comprised of hardworking town employees but in the effort of good governance regular and recurring review of our practices will ensure we are best serving the public and utilizing our tax dollars effectively. 

I therefore will propose the following comprehensive audit schedule, to start in 2023 and continue indefinitely in a recurring basis:

Year 1: Town Manager/Community Development and Planning

Year 2: Human Resources/Town Clerk/Information Technology/Local Access Television

Year 3: Finance/Tax Collector/Human Services/Assessing/Community Services Department

Year 4: Municipal Services Department

Year 5: Fire Department

Year 6: Police Department