I went to my first Town Meeting tonight. It was great. There's a whole vocabulary and culture involved in them. I've been reading newspaper articles about the moderator and how s/he is selected and how s/he can run the meeting (by Robert's Rules of Order or by a set of guidelines developed by the state). There's a good website by the Maine Municipal Association the answers some questions about them.
http://www.memun.org/Public/local_govt/town_meeting.htm
I sat behind an older couple (most people there were probably in their 60's or older with a good representation of folks in their 40's and a crowd of volunteer fire fighters in their 20's and 30's) who knew what was going on. I had a chance to chat with Nancy afterwards. She was delightful and very helpful. She had a wonderful Maine accent . . . the gentle kind, not the harsh one.
There were only two items on the 46 item warrant that really got the crowd riled up in big discussion. There were a few that warranted explanation and some discussion. There were 2 people who proposed alternative amounts of money on some items in an effort to keep taxes down. Most items passed without any discussion. It lasted 3 hours (well, 2 hours and 55 minutes to be exact) which is apparently pretty short for a town meeting.
My favorite part was when there was a whole bunch of beeping, almost siren-like sounds in the balcony (right next to me) and immediately about 12 men stood up. It was all the volunteer fire department folks' beepers/pagers/radios going off. Apparently, there was a traffic accident with at least one injury. They all exited quickly, the moderator wished them godspeed and we continued on.
There was a moment of silence in the opening moments, before the Pledge of Allegiance, for a woman who had passed away a few weeks earlier. She was VERY active in Farmington politics and policies. There were many articles in the paper about her when she passed away. One of the discussion items was about a dam that needed repair on a local pond and one person suggested that at a future town meeting a proposal be made to rename that pond in honor of that woman. Lots of people seemed to like that idea and the Selectmen chimed in that studying appropriate ways to honor that woman were on their to-do list (well, that wasn't their vocabulary for it, but that was the idea).
One item of interest was that a local agency called Work Force Inc. had requested $1,000 and the budget committee and the Select Board had both recommended that that group be given $0. The citizens were really rallying that the Town should show support for this fine organization that was doing great things and was very helpful to the community. Then it was explained that the group had been granted tax exempt status on their property and that was about a $10,000 in-kind donation to the group. The item passed at $0.
The moderator was most impressive in that he knew almost everyone present by name. He introduced every one on the Select Board and the Budget Committee by name and called on most everyone who had a question or comment by name when he gave them the floor. He had great poise and used a little bit of humor when necessary. He knew exactly when to explain stuff or ask for clarification without bringing any personal bias to any of the issues.
Except for the fact that I couldn't count myself among one of the younger people who was taking an interest in their government (how did I get to be so old??), I was really glad that I went. It really was what our civics books taught us . . . that the New England Town Meeting is the purest form of democracy. Nobody was there to represent anybody else except themselves and their one vote.
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