Waterbury to resume in-person town meeting
February 5, 2023 | By Lisa ScagliottiUPDATE: This post was updated on Feb. 8 with links to warnings and sample ballots for town and school elections and business to be decided on Town Meeting Day.
Waterbury will resume its traditional in-person meeting on Town Meeting Day, March 7, but town officials would like the community to discuss how they would like to conduct town meeting in the future.
Before the pandemic, people gather for Waterbury Town Meeting in the gym at what is now Brookside Primary School. Voting is setup behind the seating area for the meeting with town officials on the stage facing the audience. File photo by Gordon Miller
Last week, the Waterbury Select Board finalized the items for the official warning ahead of Town Meeting Day. It lists all the items of business that voters need to decide.
Unlike the past two years however, the format for conducting most of the business will be an in-person meeting held in the gymnasium at Brookside Primary School -- just as it was done for years until March 2020. That was the last year Waterbury voters gathered and met face-to-face with their elected and appointed officials to decide the next year’s budget and other financial civic matters.
In 2021 and 2022, indoor public gatherings were not advised due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Secretary of State, state Legislature and Gov. Phil Scott all signed off on temporary measures allowing towns that traditionally conducted Town Meeting Day voting in person to put all of the necessary questions on paper ballots -- or delay their in-person meetings until later in the spring when they could be held outdoors.
Waterbury already used a hybrid format. It customarily voted on budget, financial and housekeeping articles in person on Town Meeting Day while town and school district officials were elected by paper ballot (a.k.a. Australian ballots). Voters also decide Harwood school district budgetary questions by paper ballot.
The shift for the past two years to putting all business on the ballots that voters could vote from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. went smoothly. Early voting was encouraged and many chose to request ballots by mail or they voted before Town Meeting Day at the town offices.
The past two years also saw an increase in voter participation when all business was on the paper ballots. Official voting totals compare the number of ballots cast from year to year, so available data refers only to paper ballots cast. Attendance was not officially counted at prior in-person town meetings where only those present were able to vote on budgetary questions.
The crowd that would gather for several hours in what was then the Thatcher Brook Primary School gym typically was a fraction of an audience for a school concert. A look back at town meeting minutes from several years ago finds most articles passed on voice votes. In rare instances where a show of hands was called, the vote totals number fewer than 100.
According to town election records, in recent non-presidential primary March elections, Waterbury’s voter turnout was less than 20%. In 2017, it was 17.7% or 727 of the 4,117 registered voters. In 2018 and 2019, it was just under 14%. Presidential primary elections draw more interest and participation. In 2016 and 2020, the presidential primary ballots were voted alongside the local elections. Turnout was 46-47% those years, according to voting records.
By comparison, elections during the COVID-19 pandemic saw an uptick in turnout with just under 1,100 voters casting ballots in both 2021 and 2022. That amounted to 24% of those registered.
Waterbury Select Board members discussed various ways to engage the community regarding preferences for how to hold future town meetings. They discussed various options such as: keeping the hybrid format in place now, deciding all business by all-day paper ballot voting to include the greatest number of people, or even moving the in-person meeting to an evening or weekend time that more people might attend.
Duxbury recently made such a switch. At a special in-person town meeting in November, voters opted to switch to deciding all matters by Australian ballot starting this March. The select board there held an in-person gathering in early January where voters saw a draft budget and were able to ask questions.
As was done in Duxbury, any changes to Waterbury’s Town Meeting format would need to be decided at a future in-person town meeting. To gauge interest in this question, the Waterbury Select Board placed a discussion item under “other business” at the end of this year’s town meeting warning that states: Discussion of Town Meeting Day format and consideration of alternatives.
A similar effort came about in 2015 when an article was placed on the Town Meeting warning asking if voters wanted to change the time and date for meeting. Proposals suggesting a Monday evening or a daytime weekend meeting before Vermont’s official Town Meeting Day failed on voice votes, according to the minutes.
Back to pre-pandemic custom
This year, as town and school officials around Vermont in January were preparing their budgets and various questions to put to their voters in March, the state Legislature once again acted quickly after convening in January to give Vermont municipalities options.
Lawmakers passed and Gov. Scott signed H.42, a bill that extends until 2024 the temporary provisions drafted due to the pandemic. A key one being that those communities that previously relied on meeting in person with only those in attendance participating in decision-making can once again put all of their questions on paper ballots.
Waterbury’s Select Board entertained the idea of another all-Australian ballot town meeting but opted to return to the pre-pandemic format. The warning for Town Meeting Day calls for an in-person meeting at Brookside Primary School on Tuesday, March 7, starting at 9 a.m.
With the exception of local elections, those attending in person will decide all other business including:
Questions on whether to change the town clerk and treasurer terms of office from one year to three years. If approved, the new terms would go into effect in 2024.
Approving budget amounts for 2023 for town government, highways and the library totaling $5.2 million with another $1.7 million directed to capital improvement accounts. (This includes multiple allocations of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds that do not impact the tax rate.)
Questions to allocate more than $59,000 in tax dollars to some 25 community and nonprofit organizations.
The discussion of potential changes to the Town Meeting Day format in the future would be just that – discussion. Any proposed changes would warrant a separate meeting to impact future town meetings.
Copies of the town report with detailed breakdowns on the town budget and reports from town officials and the groups requesting budget allocations are available online and in paper copies.
This year, the town report will include two manager updates – one each from outgoing Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk looking back on 2022 and one from new Municipal Manager Tom Leitz looking ahead at the 2023 spending plan.
The proposed $5.2 million budget calls for a tax rate of $0.5439 per $100 of assessed property value. Waterbury’s tax rate in recent years has fluctuated very little. In 2020, voters approved a tax rate of up to 55 cents per $100 of property value. For both 2021 and 2022, town officials asked for just 53 cents. The proposed rate for this year would translate to a tax bill of $1,631 for a home valued at $300,000. The tax rate is set in the summer based on the overall property grand list value at that time. Municipal taxes are just a fraction of taxpayers’ total tax bill as the school portion makes up a larger share.
Who’s on the ballot
Board of Civil Authority member Liz Shlegel works the check-in table for voters at a pre-pandemic Waterbury Town Meeting in the gym at what was then Thatcher Brook Primary School. File photo by Gordon Miller
Paper ballots listing all of the town offices that need to be filled along with two seats on the Harwood Unified Union School Board will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for voters also at the primary school gym. As is customary, school district budget questions will be on paper ballots as well, both for the Harwood Unified Union School District and for the Central Vermont Career Center School District that voters in its 18 member communities authorized forming in 2022.
The deadline for candidates to file to get their names on the Town Meeting Day ballot was Monday, Jan. 30. Town Clerk Karen Petrovic said every office on the ballot will have at least one contender.
One race for select board
The only competition so far is for the two one-year seats on the Waterbury Select Board now held by Roger Clapp and Alyssa Johnson, both of whom were elected for the first time in 2022. Incumbent Chris Viens, who has been on the board for over a decade and has served as both chair and vice chair, is ending a three-year term. He has filed to run for a one-year seat instead this year. Clapp also is on the ballot seeking another one-year term. Johnson has filed to run for the three-year seat.
A third name will be on the ballot in the one-year category. Newcomer Kane Sweeney filed a petition, making it a three-way race for those two spots.
Other candidates
All other candidates who have filed to be on the ballot for town offices are unopposed, according to Petrovic. A sample ballot is posted on the town website. The candidates listed on the ballot are:
Karen Petrovic - town clerk and treasurer (both are one year)
Mary Woodruff - lister (three years)
Jan Gendreau - cemetery commissioner (five years)
Kit Walker - library commission (five years)
Kelley Hackett - HUUSD school board (one year unexpired)
Jake Pitman - HUUSD school board (three years)
Two of Waterbury’s four seats on the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board are on the ballot this year. Each has one candidate who filed to run for the office.
Incumbent Kelley Hackett is finishing her first three-year term. Jake Pitman was appointed to fill a vacancy in October until the March election. His seat has one more year left in its term. They are essentially switching the their seat preferences: Hackett has filed to run for the one year of the unexpired term; Pitman is on the ballot as the lone candidate for the full three-year seat.
Waterbury’s other two school board members are Marlena Tucker-Fishman, whose term ends in 2024, and Victoria Taravella, who was elected in 2022 for a term ending in 2025. A total of eight of the school board’s 14 seats are on ballots across five of the district’s six communities this March.
There is still time before the March 7 election for others to step forward to run as write-in candidates. All of the offices on the ballots have a write-in option. Write-in candidates would need to spread the word for voters to know about their interest.
Waterbury Roundabout invites all candidates for office to submit letters and photos to share with the community. A special Town Meeting Day news page will be added to the website this month.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, ballots must be available by Feb. 15 for any voter who would like to vote absentee or early. Voters can request a ballot by mail by calling or emailing the town clerk (karen@waterburyvt.com or 802-244-8447). Voters also can vote in person at the town offices during regular hours through March 6.
Elections for Waterbury’s other municipality, the Edward Farrar Utility District which oversees the water and wastewater departments, are not held until May.
Waterbury’s Town Meeting warning and sample ballot for Town Meeting Day are posted on the town website in the voting and elections section along with links to ballots for the Harwood Unified Union School District and the Central Vermont Career Center School District.