(Editor’s note: The verb in the headline was changed on March 20 from “demanded” at the request of an LRHA proponent.)
The heated controversy over the Housing Choice Act took another turn when more than 300 residents asked the Select Board and other town officials to allow a representative opponent of the measure to speak from the podium at Saturday’s Town Meeting “to present the perspective of the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives (LRHA).”
More than 50 residents also attended the March 18 meeting of the Select Board, which turned the matter over to Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden.
Other residents in favor of Article 3 have also requested speaking time, she said. Her decision: each group may choose one speaker to represent them who may have five minutes to make their case from the floor microphones before other residents speak (longer than the usual two-minute speaking limit), but without the ability to show slides. The groups must identify their speaker at the in-person moderator’s meeting on Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
Holden also ruled that the representative speakers would not be allowed to answer questions from the floor after their speaking time was finished, in the interest of “keeping the line moving,” since heavy attendance is expected.
“I think this is actually giving a lot in terms of our transitions and how we run things,” Holden said. “There are lots of things that have changed [about Town Meeting in recent years] but we have to be very careful how we change things” in terms of setting a precedent.
But many of the 48 residents in person and on Zoom at the March 18 meeting strenuously objected to her decisions. “As long as you stick within your time limit, what is the downside of allowing slides?” Bob Domnitz asked. Sara Mattes also asked why the moderator’s meeting couldn’t also be shown on Zoom with viewer participation disabled.
Faced with the protests, Holden left open the possibility that she would amend her rulings. “I’m not going to answer you on the spot. I’m going to think about it,” she replied to Domnitz. “It’s not wise for me to just tell you something off the cuff.”
Residents challenge Holden
Another resident asked if the March 20 moderator’s meeting — which is intended for logistical planning for presenters, not a discussion of any actual issues — would be available on Zoom, but Holden demurred. “The meeting will go more smoothly” with only the participants speaking; otherwise, “there will be so many people I can’t really run it, and that’s always the way it’s been done.”
Mattes also said that at previous Town Meetings, groups in addition to the presenting board, such as the Rural Land Foundation, have been allowed to speak from the podium, as happened at the contentious 2012 Town Meeting about the first failed school project.
“The RLF may speak if they’re responding to a question but I don’t know that they’re going to be up there on their own,” Holden said. “The group that spoke at the school meeting didn’t set any precedent.”
“Why not? It happened,” Mattes shot back.
“I’d be happy to talk to you in private,” Holden responded, eliciting some dry chuckles from attendees.
“Are people afraid to hear the other side?” said Lynne Smith, who helped circulate the petition asking for podium time. “Visual stuff stays with people; it allows them to really see and understand something… I’m begging you to reconsider.”
The town’s presentation is “going to be very ‘pro’,” said Sarah Postlethwait, who is challenging incumbent Gary Taylor in the March 25 election for a seat on the Planning Board. “There are plenty of things wrong with the [proposed] bylaw and we need to hear both sides.”
But not everyone agreed with letting the LRHA present its case. “I look to the people on the podium… who have done the work and thought it through, and that what they’re presenting to me will be truthful and factual,” Tricia O’Hagan said. “They have more gravitas, and as an audience I feel like they’ve been vetted by the town.”
Issue evokes strong feelings among hundreds
The HCA issue has stirred more passion in town than any other issue since the 2012 school vote, if not before. Roadsides are peppered with a variety of signs urging residents to vote “No for Now” or “Heck Yeah!” and LincolnTalk has been inundated with emails on the topic. Two content-heavy websites have also sprung up — the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives (which has rebranded itself as “Lincoln HCA Info” on its home page) and HCA-yes.org, which was created by Jonathan Soo, one of the those who circulated an earlier letter urging passage of Article 3.
Town Meeting structure will be the subject of at least one public forum led by Holden and Select Board Chair Jim Hutchinson later this spring. Whatever new procedure is followed will be “a sort of trial or test,” Hutchinson said. Some other towns have very specific bylaws about the ATM process while others are more general, “and Lincoln falls into that latter category,” Holden said.
Town Administrator Tim Higgins agreed that having written Town Meeting policies “would eliminate some of the tensions we’ve been having… but making a decision to change the Town Meeting process so close to Town Meeting is really not a good practice.”
Laurie Gray, who advocated Option E before the December Special Town Meeting and helped circulate the latest petition, reiterated the LRHA’s request for more podium time, slides, and Q&A from the audience, and warned about consequences if the demands weren’t met.
“If people feel they weren’t heard, it’s going to last a long time,” she said. “I’m really worried that five minutes isn’t enough. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s going to be upsetting. We’re going to lose Lincoln.”
The petition and petitioners requested, they did not demand, podium time.