Last week, the Select Board voted on the dates for two meetings this spring.
The Annual Town Meeting (ATM) will be 6:30 pm on Monday, April 7th at Trottier Middle School.
A Special Town Meeting (STM) to vote on the proposed Neary Building Project is scheduled for Saturday, May 10th at 9:00 am at Algonquin Regional High School.
Below are more details on the Select Board’s decision — plus their intent to support making the meetings friendly for parents and to avoid repeats of time consuming vote counts.
Noisy Rooms and/or Day Care
The board was happy with the success of the “noisy room” at Special Town Meeting that they said allowed parents to participate who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to attend. All members said they would like that to continue that in some form at all future meetings. Some suggested also provide supervised day care as an option.
Town Clerk Jim Hegarty said that he is willing to provide the A/V setup for a noisy room, but it will be up to the Moderator to decide whether to that room to be included as part of the “hall” for voting.
The board didn’t finalize details on what they will pursue for day care/noisy room options this spring.
Timing of Two Spring Meetings
So, why hold two meetings? Officials appeared to believe dedicating a meeting to the big school building project was a good thing. But even if they didn’t, the timing for each prevents combining the meetings.
The Town needs to hold its ATM no later than the last Saturday of April (or March*). And Select Board Chair Kathy Cook explained why the Neary Building Committee (on which she serves) is targeting an STM between May 1st and 12th.
On April 30th, the MSBA (Mass School Building Authority) votes on how much, if any, grant funding to authorize towards the Neary project. If the MSBA surprises officials by not awarding a grant, the STM would be cancelled. (Presumably, the NBC would need to reassess how to proceed.)
If the MSBA supports a project and 2/3 of Town Meeting voters approve borrowing funds for it, the financial ask is big enough to also require a Town-wide proposition 2½ override vote. Voters would need to approve a “debt exclusion from the tax levy”.
Apparently, the plan is to include the question on the ballot for the 2025 Annual Town Election. That will take place on Tuesday, May 13th.
In discussing the May STM, the Select Board clearly hoped that the Warrant would be limited to just the school project. While they can’t control Citizen Petition Articles, the board discussed urging voters to keep those to the Annual Town Meeting.
Why the Specific Dates and Times?
The board was concerned about Saturday spring sports conflicts that may reduce the number of parents able to attend the May meeting. Ultimately, they decided the weeknight was more of an issue for voter participation. To maximize turnout, they chose a Saturday.
Yet, they also opined that it would be good to also offer a weekday option.
Initially, they discussed Vice Chair Andrew Dennington’s recommendation to hold the Neary STM on Monday, May 5th and ATM on Saturday, April 5th. At Marguerite Landry’s suggestion they discussed opening the STM at 6:00 pm to avoid the meeting running too late.
Since the Neary Building is expected to potentially draw a larger crowd than can be handled at a venue in Southborough, it will be held at the high school in Northborough.
Hegarty voiced concern that the extra travel time would make it even harder for parents to bring kids on a weeknight. He also highlighted that driving at night is an issue for many seniors. And member Al Hamilton was concerned about weeknight traffic making attendance difficult for people who work.
Dennington suggested switching STM to be on Saturday, May 10th. 9:00 am was chosen to hopefully end the meeting early enough for parents to still get to kids’ afternoon sports games.
With the switch, they discussed holding ATM on Monday, April 7th. (It appeared that they believed holding the meeting in Southborough would be enough to offset the weeknight inconveniences discussed for the STM.)
The 6:30 start time is to allow some of the administrative business and the consent agenda to begin early, so that by the time the hall begins to really fill up, Because the start of Town Meeting includes administrative items and Articles usually begin with a Consent Agenda vote, the board believes that starting the meeting at 6:30 pm (before some voters will make it to the hall)
Hegarty noted that holding the second night of Special Town Meeting cost the Town an extra $6,000. There was no follow up discussion on pros and cons of a one day versus potentially multi-night ATM.
Cook referred to the survey conducted for the fall STM that indicated many of the respondents would prefer a weeknight. (Detailed results of that survey was never publicly shared, nor was an analysis of the demographics.)
Clickers
Hegarty explained the details behind his tech errors with the clickers that were meant to have saved time on vote counts at the September STM. (Because they weren’t functioning, time consuming head counts had been required for close votes.)
He agreed with Dennington’s assessment that they need to work for the future meetings. He assured they would and shared that the Municipal Technology Committee Chair Matt Probst offered to help.
It turns out that the clickers wouldn’t have helped at the first night of the September STM anyway. The Town only has 600, and the voter turnout exceeded that. (Logistics for counting the vote in two rooms also complicates the number needed.)
For the Neary meeting, the Town will rent or purchase enough additional clickers to handle the over 1,000 voters anticipated. The clicker vendor will also be at that meeting for support.
*The Town bylaw dictates timing of Annual Town Meeting, which officials try to time appropriately for setting budgets for the fiscal year that starts on July 1st. At the September 30th Special Town Meeting, voters approved extending flexibility and timing to allow the Select Board to schedule it up to the last Saturday in April. But if the Attorney General’s office doesn’t approve the change, the current bylaw dictates opening the meeting on a Saturday in March.
