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What are the rules one should use in deciding how to vote at Town Meeting?
Let's say you have a child in the school system. If you go to Town Meeting, should you vote for budget articles to support the schools?
If you are elderly and you have had occasion to use the town's ambulance service, should you support the purchase of another ambulance? Or should you support building a new senior center?
What about the corollary? If you are not a senior, should you oppose the senior center? If you have no kids in the school system, should you oppose additional school funding?
What are the duties of voters in these situations? Should one vote for what is personally best, or instead should one look at the town as a whole? Should one take into consideration the feelings of people who can't vote or don't show up to vote?
As a former member of the Finance Committee, I tried to wear my "Finance Committee hat" when serving on that board. This sometimes meant taking unpopular positions that went against my personal self-interest. This did not make me popular but I felt it was important to do so. Likewise, I took off my "FinCom" hat at the last Town Meeting and spoke from the floor (again, a very unpopular move with my FinCom colleagues.)
Here is an example of what I consider a wrong decision with this philosophy in mind. At the last Town Meeting, we voted to give the owner of Exchange Hall over $200,000 towards needed renovations. There were multiple strings attached to this gift, but a gift it was, nonetheless. And giving taxpayer money to a private individual is a precedent that Town Meeting should never have set. But the voters present loved the building and wanted to see it renovated, so they made the wrong choice and approved the funding.
I believe that the voters who approved this gift were wearing their "personal hats," and not their "member of Town Meeting" hats.
Town Meeting members need to consider precedent, the overall financial picture of the town, the recommendation of the town boards, and the views of citizens who may not be present (but pay their taxes) when deciding how to vote. As tough as it may be to do this, I think personal preferences should carry very little weight.
The reason for this is that Town Meeting members are representing all voters and taxpayers in Acton. That is what a Town Meeting does. So while various interest groups do try to get out the vote, there is a duty that anyone showing up at a Town Meeting should exercise. And that duty is to consider many things beyond how it affects one personally.
Town board members have hats to wear as well. These good volunteers often have biases which are not all bad. For example, we expect School Committee members to advocate for the schools and to protect their budgets. They wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't think like that. But when the School Committee goes before Town Meeting to advocate their position, there needs to be a skeptical review done in light of the roles being played. In our current budget system, Town Meeting is the only check we have against town boards that are advocates for their own budgets. And that means that Town Meeting members have to have their Town Meeting hats on when they review and vote to approve these budgets.
Voting for what is personally most beneficial is not the best way for the town to make decisions. I believe the Town Meeting structure is built on people wearing their "Town Meeting" hats. And while it is difficult to step outside one's personal self-interest, it is a necessary step when a small sample of voters are representing all citizens in town, as is the case at a Town Meeting.
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Response to Article
Response #1
By Margaret Woolley Busse, June 19, 2008
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