From the Town Clerk

Hello All ~ Happy July.  I can’t believe we are more than half way through 2023.  I also can’t believe ten full years have passed since I became your Town Clerk.  I have to say . . . time sure does fly when you are having fun!!!  I am definitely having fun and absolutely love being your Town Clerk.  Thank you for another exciting, interesting, challenging, and informative year! 

STREET LISTINGS
We received the Annual Street Listings based on the 2023 Census data we gathered this year.  If you would like a copy, there is a $15.00 charge.  You may purchase at town hall or online at https://www.invoicecloud.com/rehobothgovsvcs and click on Street Listings.

NON-RESPONDENTS TO THE 2023 REHOBOTH ANNUAL TOWN CENSUS
As per Massachusetts General Law, if you have not responded to the yearly census, your voter status must legally change to inactive as of the first Monday in June.  Therefore, the Clerk’s Office sent out 1,991 voter confirmation cards last month to reinstate those voters who did not return their 2023 Census.  We are required by law to either receive your yearly signed census or the recently mailed confirmation card must be completed, signed (very important) and returned to us in order to reactive your “active” voting status.  We did place return postage on the return confirmation card.  Please either mail or drop off your signed confirmation card at the Town Hall drop box, or our office, as soon as possible so we may reactivate your voting status.  Please note, unless you returned your yearly census or the signed confirmation card you received stating you still live in the Town of Rehoboth, you will need to provide proof of continuous residency before being allowed to vote in any federal, state, or town election and/or town meeting.  Last year we mailed 831 voter confirmation/inactivation cards to those Rehoboth voters who did not complete their Annual Town Census.  Unfortunately, we more than doubled that mailing in 2023 by an additional 1,160; total of 1,991 voters who did not return their 2023 Census.   Please remember, we have several very important elections and town meetings coming up in 2024; therefore, you will want to make sure your voting status is “active” when you show up at the polls or town meeting.  If you don’t want to receive a voter confirmation/inactivation card in the future, simply return your completed yearly census by January 31, each year.  Thank you.

BUSINESS CERTIFICATES
Business owners are reminded that the application fee for a business certificate and/or business certificate renewal is $50.00 and that your certificate is valid for four years.  If your business license is expiring within the next six months, you should have received your renewal letters and applications during the month of June.  Please send in your notarized business certificate renewal, along with payment or stop by so we can notarize your signature and provide you with an updated business certificate.  Thank you and we wish you well with your business.

DOG LICENSES
All dog licenses were due and payable by April 1^st.  Unfortunately, a $15.00 late fee was assessed for any licenses that were not renewed by June 1^st, after a 60-day grace period.  We still have a little over 600 dogs that are unlicensed for this year.  Total licensed dogs so far in 2023 is 1,787 as of June 30, 2023. A non-criminal citation with an additional charge of $25.00 will be issued for any dogs that are not licensed by July 15^th, so please, license your dog(s) to avoid any further late charges.  If you were one of the 587 dog owners who received reminder postcards last month, please renew your dog’s license before the added expense of $25 is added to their dog’s license fee.  If your dog has a valid rabies vaccine, you may register your dog online at www.RehobothMA.gov – click on “Online Payments” or go directly to: https://permiteyes.us/rehoboth/publichome.php

to renew your dog(s) 2023 license.  If you prefer to pay in person or drop off your payment in the drop box at Town Hall, 340 Anawan Street, that is also an option.  If, unfortunately, your dog has moved or passed away, please let us know by phone 508-252-6502 X-3112 or X-3109, email TownClerk@RehobothMA.gov or by checking the Permiteyes website listed above and check off the box moved/deceased to update our database; we are so sorry for your loss.  Thanks so much.

MASSACHUSETTS TOWN CLERK’S ASSOCIATION - MTCA
Well, Jenn, Kerrie and I have certainly been busy taking classes in Plymouth and advocating for future elections at the State House this month.  On Wednesday, June 7^th through Friday, June 9^th the Town Clerk’s Office attended a 3-day workshop learning how to better serve the public through the expertise of several State Officials.  The Massachusetts City and Town Clerk’s Association held its Summer 2023 Conference where Jenn, Kerrie and I were able to take the following courses: 

First Amendment Audit Protocol – Presenter – Lauren Goldberg, Managing Partner, KP Law.  Lauren provided an overview of how to prepare for a first amendment audit should they visit your town/city hall. The discussion included an analysis of the legal issues governing the use of public spaces for first amendment purposes. Just as importantly, the discussion also included consideration of the practical implications of such “auditors”, including use of office space, identifying “public” and “private” areas in municipal buildings, public records issues, and employee safety, being prepared with a departmental and overall response plan, signage, employee support and more.  I will be sharing Lauren’s PowerPoint presentation with all Department Heads at our next Department Head meeting.

Vitals 101 & Home Births – Presenter Alex Foreman, Director of Massachusetts Department of Public Health – Registry of Vital Records and Statistics.  Alex went beyond the basics and demonstrated effective strategies for registering and/or amending vital birth, death and marriage records. This class also explained how to correctly and efficiently register birth and death records as well as process various amendments. The workshop also demonstrated the correct procedure for processing home births, which Rehoboth has had quite a few over the past few years.  The process is quite cumbersome with the documents needed to register a home birth.  Hopefully, the new process will streamline the process for both birthparents and Town Clerks.  We did learn there will be a new online vitals software program, which will be launched within the next few months.  We are looking forward to learning about the new program, after the test phase concludes and begin training on the new system.  Wish us luck.

Side Note:      
Voter Registration Information System (VRIS) - Steering Committee – Speaking of new computer systems.  In January of 2022 I had the honor of being asked by State Elections to be one of a handful of Massachusetts Town Clerks to serve on the State’s Steering Committee for the new build of the State’s Voter and Resident Information System.  The 1995 VRIS program we have been using is antiquated and in desperate need of an upgrade.  The new State computer program, which we use for our yearly Census and Elections is now in the testing phase.  Rehoboth is one of 14 cities/towns that are testing the new program.  Testing started the last week of June and will continue to mid-July.  The conversion will take place the end of July and hopefully, the new State Computer Programs for Elections and Census will be live beginning in August.  So very exciting!!

Technology in the Clerk’s Office – Presenters Michelle Tassinari, Director, Elections Division, Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, David Gianotti, Chief of the Public Education and Communications Division of the State Ethics Commission and Lori Augino from Democracy Live. 

This 3-hour session began the first hour with Michelle Tassinari updating us on the much-anticipated new voter registration system, as discussed above in the “side note”. During the next hour, David Giannotti spent an hour answering questions in regards to the new online State Ethics program; which by the way, is so much better than the previous State Ethics training we all were required to take every other year.  Last but not least, Democracy Live gave us an hour presentation their latest technology and how we can implement it to assist disabled voters who need help with completing their electronic ballot.  This new type of voting will also be available for our UOCAVA (overseas) voters as well. 

Records Retention & Management – Presenters Nathanial Smith-Concord/Municipal Archivist and Dr. Jack Warner, Archivist at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the past 27-years.

Both Nathan and Jack discussed the role the City/Town Clerk and Clerk’s office has to play during the creation of new records. Some of the duties include advocating for the appropriate technological tools to create and store records as they are created and communicating best practices to Boards, Committees, and other Departments. Also, how and when to transition records from active use towards evaluation for disposition including where to start with inventorying records. We also discussed the managing destruction, long term storage, digitizing, and archiving of records that are no longer in use including the pros and cons of using third party vendors. Finally, we reviewed the new online records retention schedule along with the process of how the municipal retention schedule relates to our office functions and the records that we produce.  They confirmed the mandatory process, which we do in Rehoboth, of requesting permission from the State to destroy certain records. Dr. Jack Warner, also led the discussion on the role the State can play in supporting municipal record keepers.

Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) / Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) / Obscure Laws – Amy Warfield, Burlington Town Clerk and Laurie Becker, Paxton Town Clerk conducted an interactive review of the Common and Obscure Laws that Clerks have to deal with every day - or those we see just once in a while - when doing the job of Town Clerk. We also looked at CMRs that affect the Town Clerk position and helped us create a resource that will act as a quick reference when we get those questions that stump all of us from time to time.  This class was soooo informative and useful.  I look forward to putting some of my new resources to work!

All the classes were informative and helpful to the Town Clerk’s Office.  What an awesome experience.  An added benefit of the June 2023 MTCA Conference is that I was honored with my 10-year Massachusetts Town Clerk’s Association Service Pin.  It has been a sincere pleasure to serve as Rehoboth’s Town Clerk for the past ten years – thank you all!!

MASSACHUSETTS CITY AND TOWN CLERK’S DAY ON THE HILL
(Wednesday, June 28, 2023)
Kerrie (Assistant Town Clerk) and I were honored to be invited to the first “Clerk’s Day on the Hill” since 2012.  Our day at the Statehouse in Boston began with 152 of the 351 City and Town Clerk’s meeting in the Great Hall of the Statehouse, where we located Rehoboth’s Town Flag, proudly hanging 2^nd flag in from the right – far right of the Great Hall.   If you would like to see a photo, please let me know and I will share.  The Hall was magnificent.  We were greeted by the MTCA Officers and MTCA Legislative Agent, Tom Joyce.  We also were greeted by Senator John F. Keenan and Representative Daniel J. Ryan (both Chairs of the Joint Committee on Election Laws).

The Clerk’s and MTCA’s mission during our Day on the Hill was to meet with Senators and Representatives to discuss their support of several legislative items that impact our profession as it relates to Elections.

The MTCA asked us to share that in recent years, the administration of elections has changed dramatically. Beginning in 2016 in-person early voting for all state elections was required. In 2020, during the pandemic, all voters were allowed to vote early by mail. Sweeping changes to the election laws made voting by mail and in-person early voting a permanent requirement beginning in 2022.

These changes have placed a tremendous burden on those of us who are tasked with administering elections. We asked our legislators to carefully consider proposals that would modify these current requirements and allow us to better manage the burdens placed upon us.  We had four unified talking points for discussion, which were collected from a detailed survey of every City and Town Clerk in Massachusetts.  The points were:

• In Person Early Voting – we strongly recommend reducing the number of days currently required. Our survey data has shown that only about 5% of voters took advantage of early voting for the 2022 primary election. Data also indicated that early voting turnout for the 2022 general election was the highest during the last few days of the 2-week period. These long periods of in-person early voting come with a significant cost.
• Vote by Mail Postcards – the required SOC postcard mailing creates an extremely burdensome manual process. Similar to the permanently disabled absentee voting regulations, we advocated for a permanent Vote by Mail option for voters to permanently opt in or opt out, eliminating the multiple postcard mailings from the State.
• Fully Fund Mandated Costs - we strongly encouraged our legislatures to fully fund the mandated costs associated with early voting. In order to efficiently manage this labor-intensive process, we need equipment (high speed printers and tabulators) and additional staff.
• Survey Data – The MTCA conducted a comprehensive survey to capture information regarding voter turnout, vote by mail requests, in-person voting volume, and costs associated with each method. If you are interested in reviewing the survey results, please let me know and I will gladly share the handouts we left with our legislators.

After our meetings with our legislators, we had a 40-minute State House Tour, which was extremely informative and interesting.  We sure do have a lot to be proud of as Massachusetts voters and residents.  When Kerrie and I left the State House, we left with a sense of accomplishment and pride of representing Rehoboth as your Town Clerk and Assistant Town Clerk.  Below is a photo that was taken at the Grand Staircase at the Massachusetts State House.  Can you find Kerrie and I?  Answer will be in the August Rehoboth Reporter. 

Kerrie and I would like to personally thank Senator Pacheco, Representative Howitt, and Senator Feeney along with their staff, Alexa Cahill, Scott Young and Keith Drucker for taking the time to meet with us.  We truly appreciate your time and support.  Thank you also, to the MTCA and Tri-County Clerk’s Association for making our day on the hill possible.  A huge thank you to Charlotte Castro and Maureen Whittemore for helping us in the Town Clerk’s Office so Kerrie and I could attend the event and our office remain open to the public.  A win – win – win for all.  Thank you, ladies!  Finally, thank you Rehoboth.  Please see the photo below:

In closing, Kerrie, Jenn and I hope you had a wonderful 4^th of July and wish you a happy, healthy, safe, and memorable summer!  Please stay healthy and safe!!  I look forward to chatting with you again in August.

Sincerely,

Laura