Letter: Clickers, Crickets & Cliques in 01267
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To the Editor:
It's no secret that I feel strongly that Williamstown's town meeting is broken and should be largely replaced by the Australian ballot at the town election. I further suggest any expenditure greater than $50,000 be required to be approved by voters at the town election.
The town election permits all the electorate to have a 12 or 13-hour window to be able go to the polling place and vote, as opposed to voting on any item at a largely unpredictable time during a much shorter town meeting.
So, what is the Williamstown Board of Selectmen planning on doing? Spending an unpublicized amount of hard-earned taxpayer money on renting and buying clickers so a smaller number of attendees can vote "in privacy" at town meeting.
That's the purpose of the town election. The clickers will transmogrify the town meeting into an illegal town election. We are devolving rather than progressing.
Ken Swiatek
Williamstown, Mass.
Swiatek is a former selectman.
