Select Board looks to discuss future Town Meeting format

October 14, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

It’s nearly five months away but Town Meeting Day is on the minds of Waterbury Select Board members who have put the topic on the agenda for Monday night’s meeting, Oct. 16.

Back in March at this year’s town meeting, there was some discussion about whether Waterbury should consider making changes to the format for how the annual exercise in local democracy is conducted.

Waterbury returned to an in-person Town Meeting this past March for the first time since 2020. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

This year’s meeting was the first in-person town meeting since 2020 because large gatherings were called off during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 and 2022 meetings were simply held as elections with all items of business on the paper ballot (also called Australian ballots) for those two years. Many communities around Vermont did the same and Waterbury along with other municipalities saw a significant increase in voter participation. 

Waterbury’s turnout in 2021 and 2022 when all business was on the ballot was right around 24% of those registered to vote, according to data from the Town Clerk’s office. In the several years before the pandemic, participation by ballot ranged between 13 and 18%. Likewise, this year’s meeting attracted about 150 people in person over the course of several hours; Australian ballot votes added up to 676 – just under 15% of Waterbury’s 4,540 registered voters. 

Before the pandemic as well as this year, Waterbury has been a town with an in-person meeting where only those in attendance can vote on the town budget and spending articles. Elections to fill local and school district offices are on paper ballots that voters can vote all day. 

Waterbury’s meeting is held in the morning on Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March. It’s a state holiday and typically a day off for local schools, many of which are used for local meetings and polling places. However, many workplaces aside from state and local governments and schools do not give employees the day off. The number of people casting paper ballots often exceeds the in-person meeting attendance severalfold. 

The Harwood Unified Union School District holds an annual meeting in person the night before Town Meeting Day where there is a budget presentation and voters may ask questions, but no voting is held on key articles. The budget vote and school board elections are conducted by paper ballot in the district towns the following day. As a result, the in-person meeting rarely attracts more than a handful of members of the public.   

The seeds of possible change

Discussion at this year’s Waterbury town meeting raised questions about how to build on the participation momentum of the previous two years while not losing the ability for people to ask questions of town officials, debate the proposed budget, and even make changes before it’s voted on.  

Suggestions included changing the day and time of the meeting to a weekend or evening to potentially attract more attendance. Another consideration might be to shift to all-Australian balloting as was done in 2021 and 2022 with the possibility of a public meeting beforehand where there could be discussions, questions and feedback to town officials from the public. 

Duxbury voters last November opted to switch to conducting all Town Meeting business via Australian ballot. They also have kept drive-up voting that began during the pandemic. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Last year, voters in Duxbury opted for the latter arrangement. They decided to make their pandemic town meeting adjustments permanent and moved from doing all town business – including elections – at an in-person meeting to voting on everything by Australian ballot. 

To make the change, there was a special town meeting in November 2022 where voters agreed to move to Australian ballot voting for March 2023. They also passed a measure requiring the town selectboad to hold a public informational meeting in early January with a budget presentation, discussions, and other features of the former in-person town meetings. 

Both the November and January Duxbury meetings drew more than 100 people in person. The March all-day balloting turnout was 23% of the town’s checklist. Duxbury elections officials also continued the new practice of drive-up voting that they began during the pandemic.

Looking past March 2024 

In Waterbury, town officials have not discussed future town meeting formats in depth since March. Municipal Manager Tom Leitz reminded the board last month that if voters are to consider making any changes for the future, any proposals would need to be put to the electorate as formal articles at an official town meeting. That would mean that any such questions for voters to consider at the March 5, 2024 town meeting would need to be drafted by late January in order to be included on the warning and in the town report that’s printed for Town Meeting Day. If voters next March decide to make any changes, they would go into effect for town meetings after the March 2024 meeting. 

The Select Board has put the topic on Monday’s agenda as a way to start that public discussion.  

“It’s a question of what to we value within democracy and what would make the most sense,” Select Board Chair Roger Clapp said at the Oct. 2 board meeting.

The board does not have any recommendations or preferences to share with the community just yet. 

“I don’t know if we are going to have uniformity among the whole Select Board as to which way we will want to go,” board member Mike Bard suggested. 

Clapp agreed. “I can bet we probably don’t,” he said. 

Board member Alyssa Johnson noted that for the Oct. 16 agenda, the topic be described as an “initial discussion” to invite community members to consider and share their ideas. 

The public is invited to attend Monday’s board meeting either in person or via Zoom online. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Steele Community Room at the municipal offices. The video link is on the meeting agenda posted on the town website. The discussion is listed after the board makes appointments to several town boards and commissions.