Rule Loving Letter: Town Meeting

Dear Editor,

Is it possible for one public works project to be the recipient of so many precedent breaking events and unanticipated situations? Last year at Annual Town Meeting, unlike all previous bondable public works projects, all new school and school renovations, the Library addition and Town Hall renovation, the new fire house was not presented on the warrant as debt excluded. Assurances were made that this project could be funded under the levy limit.

One year later we will be asked to exempt the debt due to the unanticipated GDRS budget need. This past year the contractor for the Fire House was dismissed for cause.

The next precedent breaking event is the Board of Selectmen asking to hold the election for the debt exemption prior to Town Meeting. This has never happened before and more justification for the expenditure should be forthcoming from the Board. The election has no purpose unless Town Meeting votes to approve the debt exclusion on April 28. Voters can support the debt exclusion, but the vote is meaningless unless Town Meeting approves the warrant article.

I have been advocating for many changes to the Town Meeting process. A few suggestions include standardizing the order of the warrant articles by presenting the largest monetary articles first, then non-monetary articles submitted by elected boards, then non-monetary articles by appointed boards and committees, then citizen petitions.

A second change was to require all boards and committees to submit their votes to the Board of Selectmen prior to the publication mailed to voters. The third change was to present all new public works projects that require bonding, be presented as debt excluded to require a ballot vote to approve of the project. All of these changes are sought to de-politicize Town Meeting as much as possible. Last minute deals, placing those articles not favored near the end of the warrant, all make for political intervention.

There has been no tangible evidence that any of the ideas that I suggested were considered or implemented by the Board of Selectmen. Now that the Town Meeting Study Committee has presented the results of their study, I think the Bylaw Committee should review the list and any recommendations that could be deployed, should be presented on the November ballot as a bylaw change. Let the voters decide if the process needs formal changes.

I also think that Selectmen could show support for the school by committing to present the debt exclusion request as the first article on the April warrant. The Town Manager stated at the February 24t meeting that having the vote prior to Town Meeting was more helpful than after the meeting. In order to be consistent with this thought, presenting the article first would be the proper call. If the BOS truly support the schools, they will commit to making the debt exclusion article first now and not wait for the election vote to see which way voters act. We should have as many voters as possible at Town Meeting decide this issue and the best way to do this is to have it as the first item. There is no standard practice for the order of the articles, so there is no precedent to break.

Sincerely,

Rule Loving

Townsend Road