For all their shortcomings, existing meeting rules remain popular enough that proposals for change routinely fail. Such was the case with a home-rule charter proposal in Bristol and a remote meeting bill in the state Legislature.
Article 2 on Bristol’s town election ballot asked whether voters wanted to establish a commission to consider the establishment of a town charter. The goal of the proposal was to have a charter commission look into changing the way town meeting works to blend the best elements of the traditional town meeting — which Bristol still follows — with the best elements of the Official Ballot Act, commonly known as SB2 — which has come up several times without garnering the super-majority of votes required for passage.
The article was defeated on Tuesday’s ballot by a 159-164 vote.
Bristol’s ballot drew 425 voters — 398 voting on Tuesday and 27 voting by absentee ballot.
In contested races, former selectman Shaun Lagueux defeated incumbent Wayne Anderson, 264-88, with another challenger, Steven Coffill, receiving 52 votes for the three-year position.
Cheryl Cizewski defeated Cade Overton, 191-152, to become cemetery trustee for two years. Richard LaFlamme was without a challenger for the three-year cemetery trustee position, receiving 333 votes.
The only other contested race was for three library trustee seats. Winners were Karen Boyd, 300; Martha Hulsman, 257, and Nancy Dowey, 219. The other candidate, Richard LaFlamme, received 118 votes.
All of the zoning amendments on the ballot passed.
The remainder of Bristol’s town warrant will be taken up at the business meeting at Newfound Regional High School on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Remote Meetings After COVID
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday defeated House Bill 216 on an 11-10 vote. The bill would have continued the COVID-era option of holding meetings remotely through Zoom and other electronic means beyond the current pandemic.
Bristol Republican Edward “Ned” Gordon, chair of the committee, said he did not oppose allowing remote access for the public, but had reservations about allowing the legislative committees decide whether members could participate and vote remotely.
Representative Michael Sylvia of Belmont said, “I am opposed to these remote meetings in every possible way. It appears to be more transparent but it is less. … A lot of times we don’t know if the legislators are actually listening” or “doing other things in our homes.”
Other opponents of the bill said it made it more difficult for committee secretaries to process the notes from such meetings.
Supporters of the bill said that allowing remote access to meetings is particularly useful to those who cannot easily show up to testify at the Legislative Office Building in Concord or who just want to see what is taking place. Representative Marjorie Smith, a Democrat from Durham, noted that remote meetings have allowed greater amounts of public participation, and suggested that there would be a floor fight when the bill reaches the full House.
Dartmouth Increases Tuition Rate
The trustees of Dartmouth College voted last week to raise tuition, fees, and room and board by 2 percent, to $78,010, as part of the 2022 fiscal year operating budget of $1.2 billion.
Tuition for the Tuck School of Business is set at $77,520, and the Geisel Medical School at $67,532, unchanged from the current school year, while tuition for the Thayer School of Engineering is going up 2 percent, to $58,953.
Helping to offset the increased tuition, the trustees approved a 13 percent increase in financial aid for incoming students.
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