Bruce Dorner leads a discussion about a potential Bristol Charter Commission.
Voters of Bristol will be asked whether or not to establish a commission to consider whether the town should establish its own home rule town charter. The question on the March ballot simply asks to establish a charter commission; any recommendation the body makes would go before the voters at the 2022 Town Meeting.
In order to explain what to Bristol voters is a new concept, Bruce Dorner, vice-chair of the Bristol Economic Development Committee, conducted a Zoom interview with former selectman Rick Alpers, who first brought up the idea of a town charter, and myself.
Former selectman Rick Alpers discusses what it means to adopt a home-rule town charter.
Rick was serving as chair of the Bristol Board of Selectmen when he first mentioned a town charter, but he said he didn’t think Bristol was ready to change its governing process at that time. He brought it up again when residents were petitioning for the adoption of RSA 40:13, the Official Ballot Act, commonly known as SB2. It was at least the third time that the article was to appear on the town warrant, but it had never achieved the super-majority it needed for passage. It was clear, however, that a majority of the voters were looking for a way to expand participation in town meeting.
Bristol operates under a traditional town meeting process where voters elect officials and vote upon certain items on a ballot, but then hold a business meeting to address most of the other items on the warrant, including the town budget. SB2 towns, on the other hand, first hold a deliberative session to discuss and potentially amend the warrant articles before they all go onto the official ballot for people to approve or reject on Election Day.
Tom Caldwell explains how a charter commission could create a hybrid town meeting process.
It was Bristol’s state representative and school board member John Root who spearheaded the effort to pass Senate Bill 2 more than three decades ago in order to give more people a chance to participate in town meeting. He noted that only a few hundred people sit through a lengthy town meeting, while those who don’t attend have to live with the tax bill resulting from those decisions. By having all of the questions on a ballot, more voters can go and spend a few minutes at the poll to control town spending, he argued.
Towns and school districts that have adopted the Official Ballot Act, however, have seen participation in the deliberative session plunge, leaving the final spending amounts that will appear on the ballot in the hands of fewer people. Those who skip the deliberative session and simply fill out a ballot have missed any discussion about the pros and cons of a particular warrant article. Some will seek to learn more about the articles before they go to vote, but many will see the questions for the first time in the voting booth.
That is why, when the SB2 questions came up at Bristol’s 2020 Town Meeting, I took up Rick’s suggestion for a charter commission, arguing that, through a town charter, Bristol might take the best elements of the traditional town meeting and the best elements of the Official Ballot Act to create a hybrid town meeting that would better serve Bristol’s population.
My concept also would address the biggest problem with SB2: the default budget. When legislators drafted the bill, they recognized that putting the budget on the ballot could result in it being defeated, leaving the town with no money to operate. To solve the problem, the bill established a default budget that would take effect if the proposed budget failed. The default budget was supposed to maintain operations by continuing the prior year’s spending plan, with adjustments for contractual obligations such as salary agreements. One-time expenditures from the previous year were supposed to be subtracted from the default budget. Crafty budget writers, however, quickly figured out how to include some spending that did not need to be carried over to the next year. The state legislature has tried several times to better define what appears in the default budget, but significant loopholes remain.
My proposed solution would be to require a third meeting to address only those items that are defeated on the ballot. With a limited number of articles to discuss, the meeting would not be as long as the first meeting, allowing more people to participate in the decision of what to do with those articles.
Bristol selectmen liked the idea and have placed the question on this year’s ballot: “Shall a charter commission be established fo the purpose of establishing a municipal charter?” Voters will decide the outcome.
Mr. St. Clair Goes To Washington
Charlie St. Clair snaps a selfie with the U.S. Capitol in the background
Former Laconia state representative Charlie St. Clair went to Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, hoping to see the new president whom he had previously met when both attended Amtrak Customer Advisory Board meetings outside Wilmington, Delaware, two decades ago.
Charlie waited along a motorcade route as Biden and former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton went to lay wreaths on the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
“I was here in Washington for the inauguration,” he texted InDepthNH. “Not front row seats but here just a few blocks away. We cheered for any important looking cars like kids and was all good. It was said that one motorcade had both the President-elect and Vice President-elect in them. That was good enough for me.”
SATs On The Way Out
After years of complaints about standardized tests failing to accurately reflect students’ abilities, the College Board that designs the tests has decided to drop 20 subject tests, including mathematics, English literature, world history, and physics, finding that Advanced Placement tests provide a more accurate measure of a student’s knowledge.
Schools also are reconsidering the value of the main SAT, with many concluding that the scores are closely tied to the student’s race and wealth, hurting the admissions process for low-income and colored students.
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