Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. There shall be established in the town of Tisbury, hereinafter, in this act, referred to as the town, a department of public works under the jurisdiction of a board of public works commissioners. Said department shall have charge and responsibility for the management of all public works operations of the town, including but not limited to the following: highway, sewer, solid waste collection and disposal, cemetery, park and playground maintenance, tree and moth, engineering services, building maintenance of all municipal buildings except those under the jurisdiction of the school department, and other operations as may be deemed necessary or desirable. The board of public works commissioners shall have the power to make all policy decisions relating to the operations of public works within the town.

SECTION 2. The first board of public works commissioners of the town of Tisbury shall be appointed before January first, nineteen hundred and ninety, by the following boards: one each by the cemetery commissioners, board of health, parks and recreation commissioners, road commissioners, and the board of selectmen. The persons so appointed shall serve until the annual town election to be held in nineteen hundred and ninety-one, at which time all five positions shall be placed on the ballot. The two persons receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected to three year terms; the two persons receiving the next highest number of votes shall be elected to two year terms; and the person receiving the fifth highest number of votes shall be elected to a one year term. Thereafter the terms of the members shall be three years.

SECTION 3. The board of public works commissioners of the town, appointed and elected in accordance with section two, shall appoint a director of public works and all employees of the department in accordance with the centralized personnel procedures of the town, and the compensation of these appointees shall be fixed in accordance with the wage and salary classification plan of the town.

SECTION 4. The director of public works of the town, hereinafter referred to in this section, as the director, shall supervise and direct the operations of the department of public works. The director shall be especially fitted by education, training, and experience to perform the duties of the office and shall have such other qualifications as the town may from time to time provide. While employed by the town, the director shall hold no other elective or appointive office, nor engage in any other business or occupation relating to public works.

SECTION 5. On June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and ninety, the boards of cemetery commissioners, parks and recreation commissioners and road commissioners of the town of Tisbury shall be abolished and the powers, duties, and responsibilities of said boards shall be transferred to the board of public works commissioners. The terms of office of all persons serving on the boards of cemetery commissioners, parks and recreation commissioners, and road commissioners on the effective date of this act shall extend to that date. As of July first, nineteen hundred and ninety, the board of public works commissioners shall appoint the tree warden of the town.

SECTION 6. No person in the permanent full-time service or employment of the town of Tisbury shall forfeit pay grade or time in service on account of the establishment of the department of public works. Each such person shall be retained in a capacity as similar to the person's former capacity as is practical. No collective bargaining agreement, contracts or liabilities in force on the effective date of this act shall be affected, and the board of public works commissioners shall in all respects be the lawful successor of the tree warden, and the boards of road commissioners, parks and recreation commissioners, and cemetery commissioners.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect upon its passage.