Minutes of the Government Study Committee Meeting
July 29, 2003
Selectmen’s Office
PRESENT: George Bailey, Patricia Zlotin, Leonard Segal, Anne Carney
ABSENT: David Fixler, Dennis Friedman, Andrew Nebenzahl
Chairman Carney called the meeting to order at 8:10 PM. The agenda for tonight was to discuss issues surrounding open town meeting and representative town meeting. The committee has to come to a decision on whether or not to recommend a change in the form of government.
Before that discussion began, the committee wanted to speak to three issues that came up at the last annual town meeting. The issues were: intimidation of voters, secret ballot and the length of the meeting. The consensus was that the Moderator had to make it very clear that any form of intimidation wouldn’t be tolerated. The general feeling was that a secret ballot might make people feel more comfortable, but the way it was conducted at the annual town meeting was very cumbersome and time-consuming. The committee acknowledged that the way it was done was correct according to the Secretary of State’s Office and Sharon’s Town Clerk has stated that she will continue to conduct secret ballots in the same manner in the future. As far as the issue of the length of the meetings, the committee
hopes that having a second meeting scheduled in the fall for non-budget items might help. The Moderator does not seem overly concerned about the length of the meetings although he has attempted to limit the amount of time for speaking on individual articles.
Alice Cheyer spoke on how Maynard and some of the towns in New Hampshire conduct their town meetings . She will give the information to Anne Carney who will put it on the next agenda.
Patricia Zlotin volunteered to draft a paper discussing the pros and cons of open versus representative town meeting. The committee will review the draft at the next meeting and decide how to get it out to the public. Several members stated that our committee has to make a recommendation soon on whether we stay with open town meeting or go to representative town meeting.
The committee is currently without a member from the Finance Committee and the Personnel Board. Anne Carney will contact both committees to try to get replacements.
George Bailey brought up the idea of a resolution or a town meeting article or amendment that would require the FinCom nominating committee to make its slate of new members available to the public at least 14 days prior to town meeting.
George also brought up the fact that the Town should require that all committee’s provide a copy of minutes of their meetings to the Town Clerk and could post them on the website as well.
The committee tentatively set its next meeting for September __,2003.
amc.
A.Carney
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