PARIS — Selectmen are expected to reduce the size of the Budget Committee because of concerns about low membership. 

In a straw poll Monday evening, selectmen said they preferred to reduce the number of seats on the committee from nine to five. 

Town officials did not take any formal action Monday evening, but signaled their intent to amend the Budget Committee ordinance at the selectmen’s meeting next Monday, Jan. 12.

The committee has four active members, which is one below a quorum.

At Monday night’s board meeting, it was believed there were five members, but after reviewing the list of names, Town Manager Amy Bernard said one of the members had recently become a town employee and was therefore ineligible. 

The Budget Committee reviews the town manager’s proposed budget and presents selectmen with its version. It meets periodically in the run-up to the annual town meeting in June when residents vote whether or not to adopt a spending plan.

Town committees must have a quorum to conduct official business. With four of nine seats filled, official business could be discussed but no formal decisions taken. 

An ordinance adopted in 1991 set the number of committee members at 19, though it has since been reduced. 

Selectmen are also expected to reword parts of the document to encourage more active participation in Budget Committee affairs, mulling a means of expanding their influence on the committee proceedings to engender a smoother process. The current ordinance invites selectmen to provide input, though committee members are not obligated to heed it. 

Selectman Robert Wessels suggested making some selectmen active voting members on the committee. 

“I would love to see a process that consistently gets to the townspeople a number everybody can agree on … a process where it requires us, as selectmen, to have more involvement than we have in the past,” Wessels said. 

The proposal received a mixed reaction. 

Selectman Samuel Elliot said it was normal, even healthy, for selectmen and the Budget Committee to present different recommendations on the budget. 

“The Budget Committee should be autonomous,” he said. 

“There’s a Budget Committee of citizens and that’s fine … If there’s five selectmen and we get to vote as part of the Budget Committee then we’ve just done the same job twice,” he said.

In her experience, Bernard said she was unaware of selectmen doubling as Budget Committee members. 

The committee is scheduled to hold an organizational meeting in February, and hold its first regular meeting in March.