The Town has posted the Warrant for this fall’s Special Town Meeting. They have also announced a new setup that will be a bit more welcoming for busy residents and parents to participate.
Plus the Town Clerk is reminding any residents who aren’t registered to vote in Southborough to take care of that by September 20th to participate.*
The Town Meeting will open at 7:00 pm on on Monday, September 30th at Trottier Middle School. This year, voters will be able to bring their children and fully participate from the cafeteria.
How family friendly the event is will clearly depend on what time the hall votes on Articles parents want to weigh in on and how long they can put off their kids’ bedtimes.
To that end, it seems likely that the two Articles likely to have the most public interest will be the first ones discussed.
Articles 1-7 appear to be ones the Select Board anticipate will be bundled into the Moderator’s recommended “Consent Agenda” for a quick vote. (That list isn’t posted yet, and a single voter can take any of the Articles off the Moderator’s list if they call out “Hold” at the meeting.)
Those are directly followed by Articles to create new MBTA Zoning overlay districts (Article 8) and the Select Board’s (non-binding) request for voters to demonstrate support for the Town regionalizing its dispatch services (Article 9).
If your interest is in something later in the Warrant, you can also watch the meeting streamed live from home to keep tabs on how the meeting is proceeding. (But no, you can’t vote or comment from home.)
And for readers who didn’t attend Annual Town Meeting and might not be aware, I’ll remind that the Town adopted new clickers to eliminate wasted time counting close votes.
As predicted, a few Articles have fallen off the draft Warrant from earlier this summer. Some new ones were added, including two submitted by Citizen Petition.
Here is the official order of the Articles on the Warrant:
- Amend Personal Salary Administration Plan
- Amend Town Code- PILOT Committee
- Amend Town Code – Solid Waste Disposal Committee
- Amend Town Code – Consumer Advisory Commission
- Amend Town Code – Minutes
- Acceptance of MGL c. 200A, §9A – Collection of tailings
- Acceptance of MGL 53F3/4- Special Revenue Fund for Cable-related Revenue
- Zoning – MBTA Communities Overlay District
- Select Board Recommendation for Public Safety Dispatch Services
- Citizen Petition – Appointments to CPC from boards and committees
- Amend Town Code – Establish Board of Trustees of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- Amend Town Code – Eliminate Southborough Housing Opportunity Partnership Committee
- Amend Fiscal Year 2025 budget
- Appropriation for Economic Development Coordinator position
- Appropriation for Breakneck Hill Farm Dump Remediation
- Appropriation for new Lieutenant position for Police Department
- Amend Town Code – Annual Town Meeting date
- Citizen Petition – Recall Bylaw
As always, the main action will be in the auditorium where the Moderator will be on stage. Presenters will speak from the floor.** But the Town Clerk provided details on a different setup for the overflow room to allow families with children to participate:
- The cafeteria will be set up with full audio/video and microphone capabilities so parents with children can vote and fully participate in the meeting and sit with their children.
- When a voter in the cafeteria wishes to be recognized, they’ll approach the microphone stand and a camera will display their image on a video monitor at the Moderator’s podium so the Moderator can see that the voter wishes to be recognized.
- When the voter is recognized, their image will be displayed on the main screen in the auditorium as they are speaking.
- A Deputy Moderator will be present in the cafeteria to oversee the room and Town Clerk staff will also be present.
- Parents MUST supervise their children at all times – babysitting will not be provided.
It’s also a place where voters can eat. (No food is allowed in the auditorium. (And drinks are limited to beverages “beverages in containers with a secure lid such as a YETI or a water bottle”.) So, if you don’t have time to squeeze in dinner before the meeting — bring it with you and head to the Caf.
Girl Scouts will also be in the hallway selling food and beverages.
Finally, the event will also be friendly to people who need handicap parking. Extra spaces will be set aside near the front doors.
For future updates and the presentations/handouts that will be posted in advance, click here.
*You can register to vote online or in person at the Town Clerk’s office, located in the Town House at 17 Common Street.
**Updated (9/13/24 8:50 am): The Town Moderator, Paul Cimino, reached out to correct my statement that presentations would be from the stage. (Actually, as he identified there was a typo “state”, but he intuited its meaning.)
Cimino reminded that as of the Annual Town Meeting in March, he changed presentations to come from the floor “with the intent being that an Article presenter gets no more ‘clout’ than an Article opponent or anyone else.”
The Select Board mainly presented from their table in front of the stage. Most other presenters spoke from a standing mic facing the audience from the floor.
I suppose that means that presenters could technically make their motions and case from a mic in the cafeteria. But I imagine most (it not all) will do it from the auditorium.
Updated (9/13/24 2:01 pm): I updated the text to include new details from the Town Clerk on how comments will work from the overflow room. And I reminded that, thanks to “clickers” there won’t be time wasted counting close votes.
I welcome these changes and thank the Clerk and all of the staff who make Town Meeting happen for incorporating these changes.My kids are of the age where we don’t need sitting services, but I do recall being in that position, and it stinks. I hope this works out for us and we turn a corner toward improving turnout.