SAUGUS – Town Meeting got off to a fruitful and somewhat expensive start, clearing five housekeeping articles, agreeing to give the town the right to name a parking control officer and handing the Charter Commission $25,000.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani asked meeting members to adopt a state statute that would allow the town to appoint a parking control officer.Bisignani had given those powers to K-9 Officer Harold Young until the Patrolmen’s Union won a grievance and forced Young to give back his citation book.Town Meeting member Maureen Dever argued against the article calling it nothing more than a revenue-raising article. She also noted that the Police Department has lost 10 officers in the last three years and there has been no willingness to rebuild the department.Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian offered an amendment that Town Meeting approved despite the fact it’s not clear if the amendment is legal.Manoogian proposed the town adopt the statute for two years and he inserted a line that requires the town to use a salaried town employee over an outside agency.Town Counsel John Vasapolli said he wasn’t sure if the body could put a time limit on a state statute. However, the Attorney General must first approve the article. Vasapolli said if the AG denies the article Town Meeting can take it up again.Manoogian said later his amendment was meant to give the article some oversight.”I’m hopeful Town Meeting will restore public safety in two years and second, I think it’s important to keep any executive decision tethered to Town Meeting,” he said. “This gives us the opportunity to review it.”While Dever voted against the amendment, which passed 32-11, she voted for the article, which passed 36-7. She said she later changed her stance due to the amendment but still faulted the town for what she called its lack of will to rebuild the Police Department.Police Officers and Town Meeting members Paul VanSteensburg, Matthew Vecchio, Stephen McCarthy and Anthony LoPresti along with Margaret Witten, whose husband is also an officer and firefighter Jeff Moses, all voted against the article.There was little challenge to the idea of giving the Charter Commission a broader budget of $25,000.Charter Commission member Karla deSteuben said the committee was warned their job to revamp the town charter would be all the more impossible without hiring a consultant.She said money would also be needed to publish the final draft of the report in the newspaper, which is required by law if there were some ancillary expenses.”This is a one time request,” she said. “You won’t see me here again next year. By this time next year we will have finished our final report.”The Finance Committee supported the request largely because 77 percent of the voters approved the formation of the Charter Commission.Town Meeting member and Charter Commission Chairman Peter Manoogian said the group looked into ways it could raise its own money but they were severely limited. He said eventually it came down to the question of whether commission members are to do the work of the people or become hucksters to raise funds.The article passed 38-5 and Town Meeting adjourned to Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall auditorium.