Democratic Process and Petition Articles

The three petition articles relating to term limits, increasing the size of the Board of Selectmen, and Saturday voting for Town Election were voted down by the Finance Commission. The Finance Commission voted to recommend indefinite postponement. Prior to Town Meeting, there will be a report issued with the reason for the opinion of the Finance Commission, but I wanted to clarify and discuss the procedure here as there has been some confusion about the "power" of the Finance Commission to "control" Town Meeting.

According to the Town Bylaws:

SECTION 9. Motions under the Article; Negative and Affirmative Motions. a) The recommendation of the finance commission shall be the first motion under an article of the warrant and shall be considered the main motion. b) A motion for indefinite postponement shall be equivalent to a motion that no action be taken under the article and such motion may not be amended. c) If the vote of the town shall defeat the motion of indefinite postponement, favorable action on the subject matter of the article shall require a motion to that effect. d) Any motion shall be reduced to writing if the moderator so requests.

and

SECTION 6. Majority Vote. Unless otherwise provided by law or bylaw, all motions shall require a majority vote of the voters present and voting. A motion may be withdrawn by the mover if no objection is made.

This means for those who wish the opportunity for the town to vote up or down, all that is required is a majority vote to first reject the recommendation of the Finance Commission.

Perhaps it seems a distinction without a difference, but I will vote to reject indefinite postponement because these articles are issues of fundamental democracy and civic participation. They deserve an up or down vote. If they are bad ideas, let them go down in flames and we will learn the true will of the people.

Even more importantly, the impression, right or wrong, that reform ideas were killed by an unelected body of town insiders with a vested interest in preserving the status quo just adds fuel to the fire of those who see conspiracy and cronyism at work. I'm not saying FinComm should have acted differently. But I think these articles are worth an up or down vote and hope Town Meeting will agree to at least debate them.