Downsizing proponent Kevin P. Gaughan doesn’t want town boards to just shrink in size. He also wants their roles reduced, with normally secondary players such as town department heads and citizen panels being given more responsibilities for governance.

Gaughan said he has created a 12- member committee to come up with “a fresh approach to how we conduct meetings and how we govern ourselves.”

So far, his recommendations include rolling back the duties of town board members to adopting budgets and setting overall policy — his interpretation of New York State town law.

The reach of town government often goes far beyond that, he said, eating up time and taxpayer dollars.

“They shouldn’t be deciding agenda items like where to hold the local garden walk,” said Gaughan, who will unveil his recommendations at the first meeting of his Government Reform and Renewal Committee at 7 tonight in the Liberty Building, 390 Main St., Suite 1717. The session is open to the public.

This meeting comes as Evans prepares for its first Town Board meeting Wednesday with three, instead of five, board members. West Seneca is soon to follow, with its first three-member board meeting set for next Monday. The boards in Orchard Park, Alden and Hamburg will shrink from five to three members in 2012.

Gaughan said that a town board should operate more like a corporate board of directors and that department heads should be similar to the officers of companies, responsible for putting into action the broader decisions of their governing board.

Hiring, for instance, would still be approved by board members, he said, but department heads would be responsible for the heavy lifting, including recruitment, interviewing and related tasks.

“You’d remove politics and patronage,” he said, “and get better-qualified people.”

Among the other recommendations:

Redesign town board meeting rooms so that members no longer sit on a raised platform but are placed at desks directly in front and surrounded by citizens. The idea is to “reduce residents’ sense that they’re attending a lecture and make them feel that they’re part of a conversation,” he said.

Increase public input by allowing residents to speak when an issue is before the town board. The public usually can speak only at the beginning or end of a meeting, leaving residents with the sense that they have no real role in the outcome of an issue, Gaughan said.

He said that once the town board’s role is more limited, it would be easier to pare down what shows up on agendas and leave more time for the public to discuss issues as they arise.

Increase the use of citizen committees. Gaughan said he has often watched residents volunteer to create committees to help with town business, only to be “politely ignored.”

Allow college students to act as ex-officio town board members.

Make local government service a prerequisite to graduation from public high schools in Erie County.

Gaughan’s governance committee, of which he is chairman, includes Amherst Supervisor Barry A. Weinstein; Clarence Councilman Joseph N. Weiss; Lancaster Village Mayor William G. Cansdale Jr.; West Seneca Supervisor Wallace C. Piotrowski; former Orchard Park Supervisor Mary Travers Murphy; Cheektowaga Council Member Jeff Swiatek.

Also, Joseph L. Kilian, president of the United Council of Hamburg Taxpayer Associations; Ernest J. Waddell, president of Evans Taxpayers United; Erin L. Grosstephan of West Seneca, who helped collect signatures that forced the West Seneca Town Board to hold a vote on downsizing; James D. Lawson, a West Seneca resident; and Robert E. Wohlgemuth, president of Alden Watchdog Group.

Also on the committee are Lynn Bochenek of Hamburg and Paul Becker of Orchard Park.