WINDHAM – The Windham Town Council continued its debate on the finance committee on Dec. 19, weighing in on a proposed change to the council rules that govern the committee’s structure.

The rules mandate that the council appoint three of its members to a finance committee, which is responsible for drafting the annual budget. The new rules, on the other hand, would allow the council to either appoint a three-person committee, or to simply develop the budget as a whole body.

Newly elected Councilor Bob Muir, in particular, has championed the idea of incorporating a “council as a whole” approach to develop the budget, a structure where each member of the council, not just three, goes through the budget with department heads line by line.

The finance-committee model, which is strongly favored by Councilor Matt Noel, calls for the three appointed councilors to go through the budget initially and send their recommendation to the full council, which has the final say.

According to Town Manager Tony Plante, Windham councils have alternated between both models since the town charter was adopted in the 1970s. Since Plante became town manager in 1996, the council has primarily opted for the “council as a whole” model, he said. The rules were changed to their current form in late 2009.

While Councilor Dennis Welch said he approved the proposed rule change, Noel continued to argue against it, with some support from Councilor Dave Nadeau.

“I don’t want to serve on, for example, the Roads Policy Task Force,” Noel said. “If I was nominated to that, the council as a whole would say, ‘OK, let’s back away from that because he doesn’t want to participate in that one.’ However in the wording of this, it’s, ‘You don’t have a choice, Mr. Noel. You will serve because that’s what we’re gonna do.’ I don’t think that’s fair. It’s not fair, it’s not consistent and it’s not similar or equivalent to any other committee.”

Dave Nadeau said that a “council-as-a-whole” model would force councilors to attend more meetings than they had bargained for.

“It’s not the way you run for office,” Nadeau said. “You run for office knowing you (have) X amount of time to give every other Tuesday or four Tuesdays or whatever. All of a sudden you could be sitting here, and now you could be having two meetings a week.”

Unlike the Nov. 26 and Dec. 10 council meetings, the discussion was cut short.

“Are we done discussing this?” said Tommy Gleason, the council chairman.

“Yes,” said Councilor Donna Chapman.

According to Plante, the council is scheduled to vote on the rule changes on Jan. 14.