It turns out that the hope of wrapping up all 18 Special Town Meeting Articles in one evening was overly optimistic of me.
Voters will reconvene Tuesday night (October 1st) at 7:00 pm to take care of unfinished business. Still left to be voted on:
- Amend Town Code – Establish Board of Trustees of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- Amend Town Code – Eliminate Southborough Housing Opportunity Partnership Committee
- Appropriation for Economic Development Coordinator position
- Appropriation for Breakneck Hill Farm Dump Remediation
- Appropriation for new Lieutenant position for Police Department
- Amend Town Code – Annual Town Meeting date
- Citizen Petition – Recall Bylaw
Every Article that voters did deal with on Monday night actually passed in the end. Those were:
- Amend Personal Salary Administration Plan — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
- Amend Town Code – PILOT Committee — Approved
- Amend Town Code – Solid Waste Disposal Committee — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
- Amend Town Code – Consumer Advisory Commission — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
- Amend Town Code – Minutes — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
- Acceptance of MGL c. 200A, §9A – Collection of tailings — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
- Acceptance of MGL 53F3/4- Special Revenue Fund for Cable-related Revenue — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
- Zoning – MBTA Communities Overlay District — Approved
- Select Board Recommendation for Public Safety Dispatch Services — Approved
- Citizen Petition – Appointments to CPC from boards and committees — Approved
- Amend Fiscal Year 2025 budget — Approved (under Consent Agenda)
For my explainer on what each Article is about, click here.
This scenario is exactly why we need TM to be on a Saturday. My husband and I are unable to attend this second night due to a previous commitment which cannot be postponed or cancelled altogether. When TM can be held on a Saturday, yes, it takes most of that day, but then it is over and people do not have to take up two weeknights, one of which they may not be able to make work. There are some important votes on the agenda for tonight and our voices will not be able to be heard nor will we be able to hear debate or others ideas or thoughts. Some people were able to be there last night but due to business trip commitments, cannot be there tonight. Gone are the days when people were home every night and could make evening Town Meeting attendance possible.
One of the votes tonight is about TM and when it should be held. I urge the hall to vote for it to remain on a Saturday in March in between sports seasons. I also urge the Boards and Committees to get the word out how important TM is. Many of our citizens have not come from a background of Town Meeting government and do not realize how those votes being counted at TM can make a difference in the quality of life, safety, infrastructure, schools and your pocketbook. As far as it being difficult for budgets to be finalized, I urge the Boards to request the budget figures from the different departments sooner than required now so it does not put an unfair time constraint on them so we can continue to have the meeting when the most people can possibly attend. I do think we need to give Saturday Town Meetings a fair chance and let citizens get used to the new timing of this very important meeting.
And just a comment on the clickers not working last night….what a disappointment that was :-( The first MBTA vote certainly looked like it was defeated and then when a second vote of teller counting was called for, the outcome was different. Now, whether that was the fact that we were all standing and some of the vertically challenged voters were not seen in that sea of bodies or some changed their minds or any other reason one could come up with, the fact that it was only 8 votes that passed that agenda item is very telling. Clickers from the outset would have alleviated the recount and saved the hall a lot of time. I certainly hope the clickers will be working at our TM going forward.
It’s interesting that you believed it failed based on the hands raised. Clearly the Moderator did as well.
From where my husband and I were seated it looked to us like it succeeded. So I was shocked that Moderator Paul Cimino made the call so quickly without even asking people to re-raise their hands to double check. I guessed that it was partly based on his being able to see the votes in the cafeteria. But it certainly is possible that some voters decided that they didn’t feel certain enough to stand in opposition to the Article and/or that some were persuaded by who they saw supporting it and chose to stand with them.
As for a miscount, officials try to avoid that possibility by having each section of the room counted by two tellers. The tallies are checked against each other. If numbers are off, the section is rechecked.
The Special Town Meeting was held on Monday night due to the results of a town-wide survey. I don’t have the survey results handy but there was a clear preference for Monday night vs. Saturday. Maybe Beth can dig it up.
Tonight there is an Article asking TM to approve giving the Select Board more flexibility in setting the date for Annual Town Meeting. The SB hopes it passes so that we can continue to find the best date to hold the Annual Town Meeting. It is not easy.
We were hoping that the STM would only be one night but also knew that the MBTA article would take a lot of time which it did. We had a chance to finish the remaining articles after 11 p.m. but the hall did not approve that motion. Tonight’s articles should go much quicker so we hope everyone that can will return.
The survey was conducted in late spring. The Select Board discussed the results on June 18th to help decide when to schedule the meeting. But I’m not aware that the results were ever publicly posted or displayed. They weren’t in the meeting packet or minutes. The Municipal Technology Committee conducted the survey, but it also wasn’t in the minutes for their meeting that followed the results.
My notes from the discussion quote/paraphrase your overview of the results as stating: Gave people 4 choices evenings Mon & Tues 9/23 & 9/24 – following weekend, following Mon & Tues, and following weekend – which turns out to be not viable because its Yom Kippur. So the two Mon-Tues combos got the most votes – and 23-24 most votes but pretty close.
One notable difference between STM and ATM that could impact feedback for the spring meeting is sports seasons. The selection of March for Saturday meetings was based on it falling between the end of winter sports and beginning of spring, so parents wouldn’t have to choose between getting kids to games and cheering them on or participating in the meeting.
When officials previously discussed the timing for fall meetings, I recall that it was mentioned that sports would be in season, so some parents may not want to attend on a Saturday in fall for that reason.
Interesting…I do not recall receiving or being notified of a survey from anywhere or in any form and your comments above confirm to me that I was remembering correctly…and are you saying there were only a total of 47 voters who voted? Out of how many voters in town? That IS a close vote and not a resounding clear preference. Nor a good cross section of the voters or even a smidgen of significant preferences of our townspeople.
Again, I understand why a fall Saturday meeting would be an issue for parents of children involved in sports and was speaking to the timing of our Annual TM. I may have caused confusion with my initial comments and I apologize. My angst about this Special TM is the fact that there is no way we were going to finish all those agenda items in one night. I again point to my comment about how many articles are up for voting at Special TM of late. I wish there was a way to pare it down. Am I mistaken that Special TMs are for things that come up after Annual TM and are supposed to be an emergent type of article that cannot wait until the next TM? Or are we using the Special TM to pare down the number of articles at our Annual TM to make it shorter? If so, I think we need to rethink what we are putting on the warrant and return the Special TM to be what I recall it truly is supposed to be. Then maybe we could finish a Special TM in one night.
Yes, special TM most likely needs to be on a Monday night since it takes place in the fall…I was referring to our regular TM in the spring which has been on a Saturday and which we have attended religiously since it was changed from Monday/Tuesday nights…except for the year that it was changed to a later Saturday and we had a previous commitment that we had made based on the TM schedule previously. You are right, it is not easy, especially when it is not a set date every year so our citizens can plan around it. We moved here 31 years ago from NH and we had experience with TMs there and it was always the same Saturday in March. That was helpful for planning on all fronts and our turnout was huge. I believe the Annual TM is the subject of the vote tonight…which, as I said, we will be unable to attend, thereby not being able to cast our votes for those remaining articles. I wonder how many other people would have gone tonight but due to a previous, unavoidable commitment will be unable to do so? I also question whether there will be limited discussion on those remaining articles, as one never knows what is going through other’s minds or what their questions could be, as well as what their opinions are. I am always prepared for an interesting time at TM!
I believe if we had had only 1 or 2 more agenda items to get through last night, the hall would have approved to finish the meeting then. When it was after 11pm and there were (as I recall) 6 more agenda items to discuss and vote on, the hall was tired and wanted to go home.
It is unfortunate that our Special Town Meetings now have almost as big an agenda as our Annual Town Meeting. Our special town meetings used to have very few agenda items but it seems there are more and more every time now. Things sure have gotten complicated for running our town and I give props to all who are on our boards and committees doing the hard work. It would be nice if it could be simple, but I believe those days are gone…
Unfortunately, you can’t accommodate everyone. There is just no way.