Town Meeting 2011

Town Meeting is a venerable New England tradition. Way, way back in the day, in rural states, where a resident could barely get to the state capital, all politics was very local.  Since local residents were taxed to support town affairs, the decisions surrounding budgets and supported activities took place annually at a meeting that was open to the entire citizenry.

In Vermont, Town Meeting is by statute the first Tuesday in March.  Generally the snow is still on the ground and spring farm chores are several weeks away.  If we are lucky, it's not mud season yet. Often this is the start of sugaring.  Most important, Town Meeting is a chance to rid yourself of Cabin Fever, by getting out of the house or off the farm, and visiting with friends and neighbors that you may not have seen since Christmas.

It used to be that at Town Meeting town and school budgets were discussed and voted on by line item.  Thrifty and tax-dollar-conscious Vermonters, as well as those with an axe to grind, would drill down into the budget and question expenditures and amounts. Town Meeting could go all day, and if there was a lot of contention, could be adjourned to the following day. However, long, tiresome and sometimes acrimonious meetings began to affect attendance; and while an employer cannot deny an employee a day off for Town Meeting, an employer does not have to pay for the day.  What if someone is on a business trip? And many Vermonters who winter in the south aren't back yet.

In any case, because towns have become more aware of including those who cannot attend the meeting, Brookfield and many other Vermont towns now use the ballot box to approve budgets in substance.  The budget is mailed out 2-4 weeks in advance of Town Meeting, an information meeting is scheduled, and people show up there for discussion.  Voting takes place on or before Town Meeting Day.  Most towns also allow line items to be adjusted up or down at the Meeting, despite the contradiction between voting on something and then changing it while the voting is happening.  Well, that's how it works.

The line item that generated most discussion at Brookfield's Town Meeting was the $28,000 to be spent on repairing and repainting fences at the town's five cemeteries.  Vermont law makes towns responsible for the maintenance of cemetery fences and for "perpetual care" of cemetery grounds. Brookfield's fences are in a sorry state, and people had complained. One selectman had taken charge of this issue and had received an official pamphlet outlining the law from the office of the Secretary of State.  It turns out that the law recognizes that fences keep out wildlife and farm animals, who might damage grave markers. Today, though, farm animals are few and far between near our cemeteries, and the most damage to fences comes from snowplowing!

An astute resident asked if the law prevented the town from removing fences (thereby removing responsibility for maintenance) if animals were not a problem. No one knew. Someone asked whether the town would be able to erect new fences at a later time if animals became a problem.  Most people assumed so (common sense) but no one knew.  We needed more facts to make a good decision.

Now we had a parliamentary problem.  A motion to accept the line item was on the floor and had been seconded.  If the motion were to be tabled, it would be unfinished business until Town Meeting 2012. Someone finally suggested that we vote down the line item, and then (when new business came on the agenda) move that the selectboard further investigate all the town's legal options regarding cemetery fencing and bring those facts to Town  Meeting in 2012.

So the line item was voted down, and the charge to the selectboard as approved! This may sound trivial but it's not.  Every dollar the town spends comes out of townspeople's pockets, and not too many of us have extra dollars.  While we were conserving fencing dollars, we approved funding a project by a local non-profit group whose aim is to create a community center in the Old Town Hall, we approved matching funds for a grant the Fire Department was awarded, so that they could rebuild the engine of the pumper, and we authorized contributions to several social service agencies that serve Brookfield residents.

Town Meeting is the day when we can think about what we need for our town, now and going forward, and determine the best way to have those needs served. (And we elected a woman to the selectboard for the first time in many, many years!)