Bristol voters face opportunity for home rule
Town Meeting warrant includes question on forming charter commission
The Bristol Board of Selectmen, at its final meeting of 2020, unanimously supported a warrant article for the 2021 Town Meeting, asking voters to form a commission to consider drafting a “home rule” charter that would allow the town to make its own rules for the way Bristol conducts business.
It was a proposal that I made at last year’s town meeting after voters rejected yet another attempt to adopt the Official Ballot Act, commonly known as SB2, which would replace the traditional town meeting with a deliberative session and a separate ballot vote on election day. I offered the idea as a compromise to satisfy the opposing views on how town meeting should operate.
In response to a request from Bristol Town Administrator Nik Coates, I prepared the following synopsis of what is involved in adopting a town charter:
Adoption of RSA 49-B is proposed as a way to allow the town to set its own operating procedures, as long as they conform to state laws. In particular, it is proposed as a way to better conduct town meeting, preserving the best of the “traditional” town meeting while incorporating the positive elements of the Official Ballot Act, commonly known as SB2.
Procedure
A warrant article on the official ballot for the 2021 Town Meeting asks, “Shall a charter commission be established for the purpose of establishing a municipal charter?”
If the article passes, the town would set a date for a special election to seat a nine-member charter commission. Interested candidates would file with the town clerk to have their names placed on the ballot.
The elected charter commission would prepare a preliminary report after holding two public meetings to discuss provisions of the potential town charter. The commission may submit the charter as part of its preliminary report, or recommend that no charter be adopted. The deadline for the preliminary report would be Oct. 15.
If the commission recommends a charter, state officials will review the report to confirm that it meets all legal requirements, and will identify any changes that must be made to bring the charter into compliance.
The charter commission will make any changes necessary to address those concerns, and file a final report by Jan. 15, 2022.
Adoption of the proposed charter would require an affirmative vote at the 2022 Town Meeting.
Town Meeting Proposal
The intention of seeking a home-rule charter is to introduce a hybrid town meeting procedure that expands opportunities for democratic participation. While the preliminary proposal is quite specific, the charter commission may choose a completely different approach, and may include other proposed changes. Voters of the town will have the ultimate say in whether the proposed charter is adopted.
As currently conceived, the proposal for town meeting would involve:
A business meeting similar to the current traditional town meeting, where warrant articles are debated, amended, and voted upon by those attending the session. Most articles would require a simple majority vote, but certain items, such as bond issues, would require a super-majority of 67 percent for passage. There may be a provision for remote participation if technology permits.
Articles that are passed at the business meeting will go onto an official ballot for ratification by the voters on election day. Most articles would require a simple majority vote, but certain items, such as bond issues, would require a super-majority of 60 percent or 66 percent (depending upon state requirements) for ratification. Voters unable to get to the polls may request and submit absentee ballots to have their votes included in the final count.
Any articles that fail ratification on the official ballot would go to voters at a followup town meeting to determine their final disposition.
Rationale: The traditional town meeting provides the opportunity to learn more about the articles proposed and to debate their merits, as well as to amend the articles to meet voters’ requirements. The problem is that town meetings tend to be long, which poses problems for those with work and family commitments, those who are elderly, and those who live elsewhere during the winter months.
SB2 offers an alternative by holding a deliberative session for debate and amendment and an official ballot for passing or rejecting articles, which allows those who cannot sit through a long meeting to come and cast their ballots, and for those who cannot make it to the polls to vote by absentee ballot. The problem is that it provides a disincentive to attend the deliberative session, and attendance plummets, leaving it to just a few people to question and amend the articles. Furthermore, it establishes a default budget to take effect if voters reject the one proposed by the selectmen and budget committee. The methods of determining the default budget are imprecise and subject to manipulation.
The hybrid approach encourages greater participation while also ensuring that voters have real choices in the decisions facing them.
John Broderick calls for unity
In an opinion column appearing in today’s Concord Monitor, former Justice John T. Broderick Jr. argues that partisan politics and the rejection of objective truths are sabotaging the “American experiment.” A portion of his column follows:
“I wonder whether our nation has become only a tension-laden patchwork of red and blue that seems incapable of transcending parochial and deeply-held political differences to meet national and global challenges that are both urgent and color blind. I wonder whether our growing civic ignorance and increasing, unthinking acceptance of propaganda as news will, in time, lead more and more of us to distrust our government, to reject the bedrock principles that formed it and to turn our rising divisiveness into a circular national firing squad. Humility, sacrifice, tolerance, integrity, civic knowledge and national character are essential to the survival of the fragile social compact we call America. Right now they seem in short supply in too many places.”
Llama tale provides lighter fare for the new year
The story of Gizmo the runaway llama has captured the attention of people weary of the dreary news we have all been seeing for the past year. Gizmo’s escape from a farm in Westchester County, New York, led to a huge effort to find the missing pack animal, and when it was finally lassoed and returned home, everyone felt a little better about themselves and humanity in general. Read about it in the New York Times.