WESTBOROUGH – In the future, Town Meeting could be conducted in a hybrid format.
Or perhaps residents could deliberate on warrant articles, then cast their votes a week later.
Too many citizens’ petitions? They could be decided with a yes or no at the start of Town Meeting, instead of at the end.
These are among the possibilities discussed over the past several months between residents and Town Meeting Moderator John Arnold.
Arnold decided to hold regular office hours in the spring and summer following several issues that arose during the Annual Town Meeting in March.
The issues raised included a lack of attendance; the challenge of finding a date and time that would suit everyone; and having time set aside to take up citizens’ petitions that may not have a direct impact on municipal matters.
One consensus from the meetings – work to improve the current system of Town Meeting, instead of changing it.
“We’ll try to make what we have better,” said Arnold.
Another consensus – no one day or time works for everyone.
“It’s hard for both parents and caregivers to attend” Annual Town Meeting, said Arnold. “It’s hard to commit to a full day.”
Arnold is exploring the use of alternative formats.
One of the alternatives is a hybrid Town Meeting that would be similar to the hybrid meetings that boards and committees have now where some participants are present and some are connected remotely.
There are a number of barriers that would need to be cleared, but there are some people who are interested in this. It could, for example, allow parents with small children or seniors who don’t like to travel at night to attend remotely, while those who can attend in person still attend in person.
Another alternative being explored is a deliberate first; vote later style of meeting.
In this model, people gather as they do now to discuss and deliberate on the warrant articles. Then, all of the votes on those articles are taken at a later date (typically, about a week after the deliberation).
Arnold said he’ll be collecting more information about this format over the next few months.
Citizens’ petitions
At last spring’s Annual Town Meeting, 15 citizens’ petitions were submitted; residents took more than two hours to go through them after deliberating for more than seven hours on the warrant.
Some residents would like to change the minimum number of signatures required for such petitions from 10 to 100. Although the minimum is set by state law, communities may change it – for example, Weston requires a minimum of 50 signatures.
“Some towns have guidelines that seem to discourage citizens’ petitions on topics outside the scope of TM; some town counsels advise that topics outside the authority of TM can be left off the warrant,” said Arnold.
However, he cautioned that such discouragement could lead to lawsuits.
An idea – and Arnold emphasized it as an idea – would be to place the citizens’ petitions with Article 1 of the TM warrant, which is the Town Election.
“The premise of the idea is that the state law says citizens’ petitions must be placed on the warrant. It doesn’t say how or where they’re placed on the warrant,” said Arnold.
According to Arnold, Article 1 is “handled by a ballot of the voters, unlike the other articles on the warrant, so there is no ‘Town Meeting’ style deliberation and vote. Instead, the election deliberation is done outside of the context of the typical Town Meeting…
“The idea is that, perhaps, any nonbinding citizens’ petitions could be placed as ballot questions on the article ballot along with the town election candidates. The ‘nonbinding’ articles are nonbinding in the sense that the request is beyond the scope of the Town Meeting’s authority – such as requesting the Select Board, School Committee or some other body to take an action that the Town Meeting can’t compel them to take, and/or ‘opinion’ articles where the point of the petition is to ask the voters to state whether they agree or disagree with some requested action or statement.
“Since these aren’t a binding action by the Town Meeting, one could consider that the deliberation could also be done outside the context of a normal Town Meeting deliberation (with speeches – pro and con – and questions). The deliberation could be done in the public arena (example – print and/or social media).
“This would allow the Town Meeting (via those that participate in the Article 1 ballot) to act on the petitions in the context of a Town Meeting (since Article 1 is technically part of the Town Meeting) without taking up the time at the ‘normal’ Town Meeting that deals with articles 2 and greater.”
Outreach
Arnold would not only like to see more residents at Town Meeting, but have them know and understand the warrant.
For example, he’d like to have the warrant posted at apartment units in town. He said that most apartment dwellers don’t get tax bills, so they might not see the warrant.
Also, Arnold would like to improve online access to the warrant by adding links to the various presentations.
About the Fall Town Meeting
The Special Fall Town Meeting will convene on Monday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. There are currently 14 articles in the warrant.
For the latest, visit https://www.westboroughma.gov/755/Town-Meeting-Warrants
