Yesterday afternoon, the Town posted an updated decision on Annual Town Meeting. The meeting has been rescheduled to open 1:00 pm on Saturday, June 13th at Trottier Middle School.
Unlike the previously posted dates, this one is pretty likely to stick. (Without a new act by the state legislature, the most the date could be pushed is about two more weeks – unless the state of emergency continues into June.)
As I’ve previously covered, the Board of Selectmen plans to work with Moderator Paul Cimino to support his strategy to streamline the meeting. They’ll be recommending at least two buckets of consent agenda Articles: one to approve as a group and another to postpone for consideration at a Special Town Meeting in the fall.*
How well the groupings work will be up to voters. Each voter has the right to pull Articles for discussion. It is also possible that some Articles, considered too urgent to wait but too controversial to expect approval without debate, will be presented separately.
To encourage a quick meeting, selectmen plan to communicate their intentions in advance. Stay tuned for more on that. (They agreed to discuss groupings at the next BOS Meeting, scheduled for May 5th. The proposed budget will also be revisited that evening.)
Here is Cimino’s message to Southborough voters:
This is an update to the announcement I previously made on April 15, 2020. As some of you know and as I anticipated, yesterday Governor Baker announced that the State-wide COVID-19 quarantine order has been extended to May 18, 2020. As a result, I must again reschedule ATM. (Please refer to my previous announcement for a summary of the process by which ATM may be rescheduled.)
After consulting with the required public health/safety authority today, I am announcing that our ATM has been rescheduled for 1:00pm on Saturday, June 13 in the Trottier Middle School gymnasium. As I said in my previous announcement, be assured that our Town Clerk, Director of Facilities, and IT Manager are all preparing to conduct a safe and efficient ATM at the Trottier location. We are all mindful of the goal to maximize both participation and peace of mind for voters attending ATM.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach me at ‘moderator@southboroughma.com’ with any questions or concerns, and thank you for your interest and participation in the governance of our Town.
*Obviously we all hope that it will be easier to convene a meeting in the fall that allows for more regular presentations and on-floor debates. Unfortunately, I can’t help noting that there have been a number of recent warnings from Public Health officials about expectations for a difficult fall.
Updated (4/30/20 1:25 pm): I initially referred to discussions possible on May 5th at a meeting for which no agenda was yet posted. This afternoon, the agenda was posted confirming the date and topics.
