Town Meeting Study Committee to be formed in the fall

The Select Board outlined a plan for the Town Meeting Study Committee this week, starting with a September kickoff meeting.

The board expects to create a website over the summer with background material about local and state laws governing Town Meeting, information from the Massachusetts Moderators Association, and more. They will draft a charge and seek a broad range of potential members in the fall, though a number of people have already volunteered, according to Select Board member Jim Hutchinson. 

The study committee will do an initial study and gather feedback about the group’s initial ideas in December at the State of the Town Meeting, where voting clickers may be tried for the first time in one or more nonbinding votes on questions to be determined. Another presentation will take place at Annual Town Meeting in March 2025, with a final report and recommendations to the Select Board in November 2025.

Earlier, officials discussed having a spring forum headed by Town Moderator Sarah CannonHolden after the March 2024 Town Meeting where an unexpected amendment to the proposed Housing Choice Act was made on the floor. Controversy swirled during and after that day as residents argued over who was allowed to speak when and from where.

The timetable is longer than some had hoped, “but it would be a mistake for us to try to minimize this or pass it off as a forum or a single meeting kind of topic,” Hutchinson said at the board’s April 29 meeting. 

“I don’t want to have a meeting where we do all the talking,” Holden said. “From my perspective, what is it that the public wants? I want to hear from them.”

“I also have to insist that this committee does polling of as broad a spectrum of the population as possible,” perhaps including a townwide mail-in poll, Hutchinson said. “I don’t like the idea of the 20 or 50 or 100 people who show up at a forum to set the ideas that get pursued.”

Meanwhile, the Planning Board is also working on a set of policies and procedures for its meetings, particularly with regard to public comment. They expect to vote on their most recent draft at their meeting on May 14.