Williamstown Officials Looking at Modifications to Town Meeting
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The residents charged with looking at ways to make town meeting more inclusive and productive this month gave an indication of the kinds of modifications on their radar.
Select Board member Randy Fippinger and Town Moderator Elisabeth Goodman attended October's meeting of the Planning Board to update the body and get its feedback about potential changes the town may want to implement.
The conversation around what some perceive as inefficiencies in the current town meeting format are of particular concern to the planners, who in June saw most of their substantive zoning bylaw recommendations referred back to committee without an up or down vote.
At the time, some residents complained that the late hour at the Tuesday evening meeting and a lack of information on the bylaw changes proposed were reasons why the meeting chose to take no action on the articles.
Fippinger ticked off a number of possible changes, some designed to make town meeting more welcoming to a wider range of residents, including a multilingual town meeting warrant, providing childcare for attendees and, perhaps, moving the meeting to a Saturday.
Fippinger, Goodman and Select Board member Jane Patton compose a task force created by the Select Board to look at town meeting after the unsatisfying end to June's session.
Other innovations on their radar include: sending literature to residents explaining town meeting articles, similar to the Secretary of State's annual mailing about public questions on the November ballot; limiting the meeting to two hours with a date certain for its resumption if needed; restructuring the warrant so items that potentially need more discussion, like zoning bylaws, are addressed earlier; informational sessions leading up to town meeting; multiple town meetings focused on different topics; and using electronic clickers to record votes, which both would speed the voting process and allow residents to weigh in anonymously.
The last caught the ear of Planning Board Chair Stephanie Boyd.
"One thing I'm torn on is the clicker thing," she said. "To me it goes back to the feeling of community. As people, we should make it comfortable for people to have different views.
"I love the visual of people standing up with their cards. It's such a wonderful part of New England character. We should be aware there are losses, too."
Goodman said she has attended town meetings in other communities where secret ballots are more common.
"To me, it's the discussion that counts, not the actual voting, and people shouldn't be peer pressured into a vote," Goodman said.
"You think they are now?" Boyd responded.
"Oh, yes, I do," Goodman said.
Fippinger said that the working group is looking at creating a survey for residents to see which, if any, changes might be warranted.
Planning Board member Peter Beck suggested that the town should try to create a non-binding question on the ballot of May's town election to ask about some of the larger questions, like instituting electronic clickers to record votes anonymously.
Tags: town meeting,
