To meet or not to meet? Waterbury voters to decide future Town Meeting format
March 3, 2025 | By Lisa ScagliottiWhen Waterbury residents gather on Tuesday for Town Meeting, they will act on a conversation that’s been at least three years in the making. They will have the chance to debate and then vote on whether they will continue their tradition of in-person town meetings in the future.
Inside the Brookside school gym, people gather for Waterbury’s Town Meeting 2024 while others vote at the voting tables in the far back of the gym. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
At the annual in-person town meeting starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the gym at Brookside Primary School, two of the questions before voters ask if future town budget and public questions should be decided by Australian ballot. The term refers to the paper ballots now used to vote in elections for town and school officers like select board members, library commissioners, justices of the peace and school board directors.
Waterbury’s tradition is to conduct its annual Town Meeting business in a hybrid fashion with elections by paper ballot and a floor meeting to determine everything else, primarily town budget questions.
Also on Tuesday, voters will receive paper ballots with questions pertaining to the Harwood Unified Union School District budget and the Central Vermont Career Center School District budget and election.
Voters can cast paper ballots all day long, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Brookside Primary School.
But only those who attend the in-person morning meeting in the school gym may participate in decisions to approve the proposed municipal budget for the year, set the dates for tax payments, and consider a laundry list of tax-dollar allocations to nonprofit organizations and agencies.
For the past two years, voters and town officials at Town Meeting have had informal discussions about whether this format serves the public interest best. The topic came up as the town returned to the usual meeting scenario in 2023 once the COVID-19 pandemic eased and restrictions on public indoor gatherings were relaxed.
During the pandemic, all questions were on the paper ballot and no in-person meeting was held. In 2021 and 2022 – both without presidential primary elections – voter participation was 24% of all those registered. That compares with just under 14% participation in 2018 and 2019, non-presidential years before the pandemic.
In 2023, voter turnout resumed at that pre-pandemic level as well with just under 15% voting. Presidential primary years are exceptions as they draw much wider interest than local elections. Turnout in 2020 was 46% and in 2024, 35% of the town’s 4,402 registered voters cast ballots.
But those figures tally voters who cast ballots from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Both last year and in 2023, in-person floor meetings for town budget items and other business attracted roughly 150 people. No specific records are kept on attendance and no votes were taken at the meetings where votes were counted.
At the 2024 Town Meeting, the discussion of town meeting participation and options to improve in-person attendance captured attention for about 30 minutes. Multiple people spoke, many expressing a desire to keep some form of in-person meeting as a way for voters to be best informed. Yet many also acknowledged the challenge of getting greater attendance on a weekday morning when many are working. Some suggested experimenting with meeting at different times of the day or week.
The conversation ended with the Waterbury Select Board promising to take up the topic before Town Meeting Day 2025.
About two dozen people attended the Waterbury “Have Your Say Day” informational meeting on Jan. 11 at the American Legion. Photo by Gordon Miller
Following Duxbury’s lead
On Saturday morning, Jan. 11, and again on Monday evening, Jan. 13, the Waterbury Select Board convened informational “Have Your Say Day” meetings mirrored after the new practice neighboring Duxbury put into practice in 2023. Duxbury voters in November 2022 voted to end their traditional in-person March Town Meeting where prior to the pandemic voters there conducted all town business – budget questions, public questions and local elections – from the meeting floor. Duxbury also saw increased participation during 2021 and 2022 when paper ballots were used for all questions instead.
To strike a balance between greater voter turnout and giving voters an opportunity to get informed, Duxbury began a new tradition they have named “Have Your Say Day.” That took the form of an early January community meeting where the selectboard presents its draft budget for the year; voters ask questions and offer comments and presumably can request revisions.
The meeting is held before the deadline for the selectboard to finalize the budget that will then go on the March ballot. It also is designed much like past March Town Meetings with tables set up for community groups to share information and an invitation for everyone to bring a pie served up by Duxbury Historical Society volunteers.
Waterbury officials this year scheduled two such sessions to experiment with timing. The Saturday meeting at the American Legion drew 27 community members in person. The Monday evening meeting attracted 21 community members.
Town officials presented slides summarizing the proposed fiscal year 2025 municipal budget. This year’s spending of $5.79 million laid out in Article 10 of the town meeting warning calls for $4.46 million to be raised in property taxes. That represents an increase of 1.3% but due to growth in the town’s grand list of property values, there is no tax rate increase needed.
The budget grand total to be spent once special articles totaling just under $43,000 are approved for nonprofit organizations and agencies (voted separately at town meeting) along with capital expenses paid with separate funds is $6.35 million.
And while the final figures will not be set until later this spring, Harwood Unified Union School District leaders do not anticipate that the 2025-26 school budget will result in a school property tax increase for Waterbury. The school tax rates for Waterbury and most of the district towns are expected to drop slightly from last year.
At the “Say Day” January meetings, Waterbury Town Manager Tom Leitz and select board members shared highlights of each town budget category including new revenue the town is receiving from the Local Option Tax that went into effect July 1, 2024. The town anticipates that it will receive $445,000 in new tax revenue for six months of 2024; for the full 12 months of 2025, the proposed budget estimates local option taxes will bring in $750,000.
The new funding stream will be used for reducing some town debt, material for gravel road maintenance, paving, funding a new housing trust, managing payments on a new fire truck and public works dump truck as well as a study for a future recreation facility and repairs to the town pool. A detailed list is in the town annual report.
Voters who attend the March 4 town meeting will see the budget presentation before they are asked to vote. They will have an opportunity to ask questions and potentially request changes within the meeting rules of order.
All of the budget discussion however will come after those assembled debate and vote on Articles 8 and 9 on the meeting warning – or agenda – on whether to forego the in-person voting exercise in the future and instead rely on the all-day paper ballot for all questions.
In crafting the language for the town meeting warning, select board members wrestled with whether the wording conveyed the importance of the decision being put to voters, enough so that those who feel strongly about keeping the in-person meeting or shifting to Australian ballot voting will be sure to attend.
Once at Town Meeting, board members introducing the item will have an opportunity to explain the implications, said select board member Roger Clapp. “We can be very clear that this is a move to change the way decisions traditionally have been made at town meeting,” Clapp noted as the board reviewed the draft warning language.
Vice Chair Kane Sweeney said in his conversations with voters, he will be mindful to emphasize that this decision will be made. “I’m more than happy to go to lengths to explain this leading up to town meeting day,” he said.
Board member Mike Bard expressed concern that voters just reading the town report and the warning may not glean from the Article 8 and 9 language what’s at stake.
“People who just read the warning may not get it,” he said. “It’s important that people know.”
Former select board member Chris Viens who frequently attends board meetings has shared his strong preference to see the in-person format remain in place. “This will end town meeting as we know it,” he said of the articles on the warning. “I want folks to know what they’re voting on.”
Others in town are leaning toward the paper-ballot option. Fliers around town urge voters to attend town meeting and “Vote Yes on 8 & 9” with the message to “elevate your voice from floor to ballot.” The unsigned fliers make a pitch to put all town business on the paper ballot given that only those with the time and physical ability to attend in person currently can vote on all town business. “Let’s strengthen direct democracy,” it states.
Select board members have said that should voters choose to forego the in-person town meeting, they could plan to hold the informational meetings in January to share information with voters before they need to finalize the budget and get input regarding possible revisions the public might suggest.
Scenes from Waterbury’s first Have Your Say Day, Jan. 11 | Photos by Gordon Miller
Click on the images to enlarge
‘A generational change’
Waterbury Town Meeting 2024. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Data on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website show that Waterbury is in good company as it grapples with how to handle town meeting. In 2023 and 2024 about 30 Vermont towns voted on moving to Australian ballot from their previous floor meetings.
Susan Clark is the Town Meeting moderator in Middlesex and an educator and author who co-wrote the book, “All Those in Favor,” with UVM political science professor Frank Bryan. Published in 2005, the book remains relevant today in its research on the Vermont Town Meeting tradition and the growing pains communities face as they try to preserve it.
Clark says the debate comes down to a “tension between two things – but not versus: democratic quantity where we want lots of people involved and quality” where voters are informed.
“People ask, ‘what is the system we are creating?’” she said. “People are looking at these systems in a Founding Fathers kind of way and asking, is this democratic system serving us?”
Clark says research has shown that in-person meetings tend to get lower participation than all-day balloting, “unless there’s a hot issue on the warning.”
But the in-person meeting affords those who attend the ability to understand the issues and, more importantly, to intervene with what town officials are proposing should they disagree.
“This is a Jeffersonian moment,” she said of Waterbury’s decision on Tuesday. “If Waterbury adopts the format on your ballot, the voters are handing their legislative power to the executive branch. Maybe that’s OK, but that’s what they’re doing.”
Clark said the choice does not have to be only between a weekday morning meeting or putting all business on a paper ballot.
Many communities have tinkered with the timing of their in-person meeting she said, pointing to her town of Middlesex that begins its meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Town Meeting Day, arranges for child care on site, and includes a potluck dinner. “We looked at the demographics of our town and that seemed to work better,” she said.
Members of the Waterbury Select Board - Roger Clapp, Kane Sweeney, Alyssa Johnson, Mike Bard and Ian Shea - and Town Manager Tom Leitz (far left) at the January Have Your Say Day informational meeting at the American Legion. Photo by Gordon Miller
In Middlesex, town officials also state on the meeting warning a specific time when the budget will be voted. Clark as moderator needs to pay careful attention to steer the discussion, but she said that allows people to show up for the part they are most interested in.
Other communities hold weekend meetings, she said, and several communities have even more unique arrangements that preserve the in-person option. She pointed to Jericho where voters last year altered their process to hold an in-person meeting ahead of Town Meeting Day where voters weigh in on the details of the budget and questions that are put on the paper ballot in March.
Another option: “Waterbury should think about representative town meeting,” she said. That’s the format used in Brattleboro and elsewhere in New England and even in Switzerland where districts in the town elect representatives to attend an in-person town meeting to debate and vote. She said that’s a way for those who want to take part to do so.
Clark said Brattleboro allows for many representatives. “There are about 150,” she said. “If you want to be a town meeting member, it’s very accessible.”
In that model, Clark noted, should the representatives make a decision that some voters disagree with, they can petition for a townwide referendum to reconsider the issue.
Clark said she will be watching to see what the voters in Waterbury decide on Tuesday.
“We’re in a hard moment for democracy,” she said, remarking on how polarized public discourse has become. Voters should consider their choice and ask, “how durable is this?” she suggested.
“This is a generational change that you’re considering,” Clark said. “Similarly, once you switch over, it’s harder to switch back.”
For more information about Waterbury’s Town Meeting, visit the Roundabout’s Town Meeting page and the Town of Waterbury’s town meeting information online.