Fall Out Follow Up

I'm pleased with the outcome of last night's Board of Selectmen's meeting.

I had a prior commitment and was unable to attend, but I watched the first 45 minutes of the meeting on my computer.

There was an effort to put a non-binding question on the ballot, and it was defeated by a vote of 4 to 1, largely for the same reasons I felt made it an inappropriate thing to do.

Again, the Board of Selectmen could have done this; they do have the authority to do this. But we shouldn't resort to this sort of thing just because a vote doesn't go our way.

I don't recall if it was Dan Dunn or Joe Curro who said "it's not that we can't do this, its a question of whether we should."

Opponents sound like they are poised to turn in the signatures needed for a referendum on Thursday, and as they made clear last night (from what I saw) they intended to do so whether the BOS placed a non-binding question on a later ballot or not.

The part of the meeting I was able to watch ended with Steve Byrne making the point that I think opponents ought to be considering much more seriously: calling a Special Town Meeting.

It's a lot easier to get a majority of the 252 Town Meeting members to agree with you, and turn out for the meeting than it is to get 20% of voters to show up for a special-afternoon-only election in June. The failure to succeed might also lead some to conclude that the opposition to this bylaw is not as strong as opponents make out.

But that's just me gossiping.