WETHERSFIELD - The establishment of a Citizens Audit Committee is among numerous objectives stated by Independence Party founder, chair and Town Council candidate Paul Copp, and he says that he’ll be looking to other towns for models and how best to implement such a body.

       One town that he says that he would look to for guidance is Enfield, where a Citizens Audit Committee did extensive reviews of the town’s Board of Education-related spending. Then-resident Susan Sheldon served on the Committee from 2006 to 2009, a period during which Enfield saw no tax increases.

       This is a phenomenal way,” Sheldon wrote in an email. â€�"At no cost, a town can analyze its spending practices and reduce costs and increase efficiency.”

       The latter was named as the primary objective behind Copp’s envisioned version of the committee. He is aiming to establish a citizens audit body to make recommendations to the town in conducting its operations.

       â€�"It’s not a financial audit-it’s an operations audit,” Copp said at the announcement of the Independence Party Town Council election slate. â€�"Efficiency: what can be done better? Their purpose is to assist the current management.”

       To what extent? That would be up to the Town Council, which would grant the committee its scope of powers, Copp said.

       In Enfield, the committee served an advisory role with a particular focus on Board spending. The body broke off into various â€�"project teams” assigned to explore areas such as facilities and staffing. The teams would report back to the larger committee, which would make its recommendations to the Board.

       But under Wethersfield’s town government structure, a town manager-oriented system, such a body would not be necessary, said Mayor Paul Montinieri when asked about the proposal.

       â€�"We have professionals who make a career out of sound financial management,” Montinieri said. â€�"In our structure, that doesn’t serve any other purposes at all other than complicating a process that’s already working.”

       On those professionals, he’s talking about Town Manager Jeff Bridges and Finance Director Mike O’Neil. And a citizens’ advisory body, he says, is the Town Council.

       â€�"I think the community would say they’ve entrusted elected officials to do that,” Montinieri said. â€�"The community chooses to allow those people to do that. The ultimate arbitrator of whether something is good or bad is the community that comes out every election year, although our voter turnout could be better.”

       Montinieri noted that the Council recently announced a $986,000 surplus that boosted town reserves to over 11 percent, which is expected to generate savings on Wethersfield High School renovation-related bonds. He credited Bridges and O’Neil for the delinquent tax collection-driven surplus, which will also allow for additional funds to go toward road repairs, storm preparedness infrastructure, and Board of Education Capital Improvement Program initiatives.

       The Committee is one aspect of an Independence Party platform that is calling for â€�"increased accountability and transparency,” particularly when it comes to the area of town spending. Shortly after announcing the Party’s slate--Republican candidates Jodi Latina and Charles Carey, as well as Ted Burhans, Gastone Colantonio, and Charlotte Bailey--Copp criticized the recent Charter Review discussion, which he feels should have worked to establish a referendum process for passing the town budget.