By Ned Young
It’s commendable that the Select Board will soon be initiating a collaborative process to improve our Town Meeting procedures. To help people start thinking about it, here are some ideas. I have no particular pride of authorship in the draft below and look forward to a robust collaborative effort on the part of our fellow residents this Spring. Hope we all speak our minds like true New Englanders!
Proposed impartial discussion procedures at Town Meeting
A. Procedures for certain special articles
- These special procedures (“Impartial Discussion Procedures”) are to apply after receipt of a petition signed by a number of residents equal to a substantial percentage of the attendance at Town Meeting the previous year (say 20%) stating that these Impartial Discussion Procedures are appropriate for discussing a particular article (a “Special Article”).
- Spokesperson(s) of such a grassroots group in opposition to the resolution put forth by a town board on the Special Article shall have 10 minutes of time to speak from the podium with the opportunity to show slides.
- If more than one group of petitioners with enough signatures wish to speak for or against the Special Article, allocation of who goes first shall be by coin toss or other impartial method.
- A non-governmental entity seeking podium access must submit a petition signed by the same number of individual residents as required for a grassroots group and shall observe the same time limit as a grassroots group.
B. General procedures for all Town Meetings
- Board members comprising a substantial portion of a board’s members (say 20%) who oppose a board’s resolution on any article shall have an amount of time to speak from the podium with slides, equal to the amount of time taken by the presentation and remarks of the majority members of the board; a board member or members comprising less than such percentage who oppose(s) a board’s resolution shall have five minutes of time to speak from the podium without slides.
- Any town board or committee that wishes to support or oppose an article shall have five minutes to speak at the podium without slides. Allocation of who goes first shall be by coin toss or other impartial method, except that the Finance Committee may speak with slides and without time limit.
- Majority members of a board shall never purport to speak on behalf of minority members.
- The moderator’s meeting to go over Town Meeting procedures and set the order of speakers at Town Meeting in accordance with these rules shall be open to the public with adequate prior notice, remote participation, and promptly available video recording.
- No additions to or changes in the order of speakers established at the moderator’s meeting shall be made without a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting.
- All persons speaking at Town Meeting must clearly disclose or disclaim any financial or other personal interest in the matter when they begin speaking
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A fair and impartial town meeting? Transparency? Who could object??
To make democracy accessible to all, not just the privileged, Lincoln should move to Town Meeting being a ‘day of deliberation’, with a separate day for ballot voting. NH towns has done through a Senate Bill. The current system disenfranchises too many people in town- just look at the small number who voted on such a hugely impactful decision. Over 100 people signed in, yet had to leave before Article 3 was voted on.
It would benefit all to read thoroughly “Town Meeting Time: A Handbook of Parliamentary Law,” published by the Mass Moderators Assoc. We do not need to reinvent the wheel, or create our won. In addition, we can consult with other towns-certainly HATS would be a great forum-to learn what has been past practice, what works, what hasn’t, etc.
In addition, “New England Town Meeting:Democracy in Action” by Zimmerman would be a great primer for all.
Let’s all, including leadership, do a bit of homework as we take on a very important conversation.
These draft procedures are a great start. Looking around the web, I see that other towns have published clear and appropriate guidelines for how Town Meeting is to be conducted; it would be wonderful if — once Lincoln guidelines have been developed — we could have similarly clear and easily accessed information.
Have the Selects announced a date yet when this initiative will begin?