Proposal for Organization

Dukes County Charter Study Commission

Proposal for Organization

1. Workgroup to develop/propose an initial Workplan for the DCCSC. The plan would address the substance of what we do, and be similar to the Plymouth 4-stages of educate, diagnose, design and promote. Activities the group might include in the workplan would be: assess current county functions and what works well/what could work better; review functions of County Manager; review statutory requirements for County Commissioners; look at other existing counties; maybe looking at counties that dissolved themselves; hold public forums to listen to the public early in our process as well as later when we have recommendations. I assume that as we go along, the initial plan would be revised and become more detailed, but we at least have a place to start.

2. Workgroup on Process: Responsible to make recommendations about how the DCCSC should do its work. This could include recommendations on communications (internal, with each other; external with the public, the press, etc.); decision-making (by consensus? majority vote? other?); any additional groundrules; frequency and duration of meetings; various approaches to building a shared perspective on our work; etc.

3. Workgroup on Background Information: This group would 1) collect documents such as state statutes relating to the county; information about other charter commissions (such as Plymouth); books on county government; 2) analyse those documents and provide brief descriptions for DCCSC members; 3) work with County to establish and maintain a Charter Study Commission Website as a separate section of the Dukes County website; 4) act as an ongoing clearinghouse for information from other future workgroups etc.

4) Workgroup on Resource Development and Financial Analysis: This group would meld the budget development work with future resources development as needed, and could be responsible for future analysis of financial relationships between the county and towns, providing information and making recommendations for DCCSC decision-making as appropriate.