Town Meeting starts a week from today. There has been no shortage of discussion on this blog and around town about many of the issues voters will get a say on next Monday. Operating budgets have been the center of discussion, but there are other articles that voters also will be asked to weigh in on.
There are capital item requests — thermal imaging equipment for the Fire Department, DPW equipment, a new police cruiser, and more. There is the question of whether to set aside money to pay for an attorney in our ongoing dispute with Northborough. There is the decision on whether to raise the hotel tax to 6 percent, and whether to allow alcohol sales starting at 10:00 am on Sundays.
And there is the question of how to allocate Community Preservation Act funds, and whether to reimburse the legal fees of employees involved in the Southborough Eight investigation.
In all, the warrant this year holds 34 articles. In the next few days as we approach town meeting, let’s work on getting each other up to speed. Take a look at the warrant. What do you want to know before heading to Trottier next week? Are there issues you’re fuzzy on? Procedural questions you want to understand better? Let us know in the comments.
(Photo by Nancy Gould)
I think it’s great that we can download the warrant! Thanks for the link.
Both the warrant and the Annual Town Report are available on the Town website (http://www.southboroughtown.com) as well as documents from last year’s town meeting.
In what order do matters actually come up at the Meeting?
In general, articles come up in the order they’re printed in the warrant, but not always. I’m a little fuzzy on this, but I believe whoever “owns” an article – i.e., whoever proposed it – can ask that it be moved in the order of events.
That will very likely happen this year when it comes to an article about reimbursing legal fees for town employees involved in the Southborough Eight investigation. There are actually two articles on the warrant that both address the issue in essentially the same way – one proposed by the BOS (Article 20) and one by a citizen petition (Article 34). Officials at a pre-town meeting last night discussed how to handle the duplication. No decisions were made, but they seemed to be leaning toward moving Article 34 up to follow Article 20 and then discussing them together.
Also keep in mind that just because an article is acted upon, doesn’t mean it can’t come up again later in the meeting. Last year voters on day 1 of Town Meeting opted to reduce funding for the Quinn Bill (police officer educational incentives). On day 2 of Town Meeting, a resident made a motion to reconsider the article (https://mysouthborough.com/2010/04/14/town-meeting-day-2-voters-stand-by-decision-to-reduce-quinn-bill-funding/). It takes a 2/3 majority to approve a motion to reconsider. That didn’t happen with the Quinn Bill article, but it’s not to say it couldn’t. It’s one of the reasons day 2 of Town Meeting is just as important as day 1.