There has been one development though, on an issue dear to my heart. The Town has begun to post attendance records of Town Meeting members to the Town website.
You can view this here:
http://www.arlingtonma.gov/public_documents/ArlingtonMA_TownMeet/2012ATM/voting/index
Everyone is vulnerable to something coming up at some point, that makes it so they can't avoid missing a meeting now and then.
The attendance of some is so poor, they should in my opinion step down and allow another to take their place. I'm not suggesting that there isn't a good reason for the poor attendance: life happens, and it may be that Town Meeting is not an obligation someone is able to fill any longer.
In that situation, the right thing to do is to step down, and allow another to represent their precinct.
Posting attendance is an important step forward for the Town. Now, if we can get the votes of Town Meeting members recorded and made public, we'll be on our way to a functioning representative democracy.
Here's the section on my precinct, number 4; a "1" means they were present, a "0" means they weren't:
|
2012 Town Meeting, Precinct 4 Attendance |
|||||||
| Name | Precinct | Session1 | Session2 | Session3 | Session4 | Session5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beal, Wesley L. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Brogan, Gregory D. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Costa, John J., Jr. | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Costa, Michael R. | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Costa, Patricia A. | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ferrara, Ryan J. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Flueckiger, Molly E. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Kaba, Nawwaf W. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Laite, George | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Marshall, Joseph M. | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Rowe, Clarissa | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Swilling, Nathan W. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
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