Prepping for Town Meeting Day 2022
Monday filing deadline; state relaxes rules to reduce in-person contact
January 22, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti The Vermont Legislature and Gov. Phil Scott this week made it even easier for Vermonters to run for local office in the March 1 Town Meeting Day elections.
Monday at 5 p.m. is the deadline for anyone wishing to get their name on the ballot for town and school offices to file with their town clerks.
A bill, S.223, passed by the legislature and signed by the governor this week waives the customary requirement that candidates collect signatures of registered voters on petitions to run for office.
The measure was one of several the legislature debated and passed recently to set the stage for Town Meeting Day to proceed without customary practices that involve in-person contact.
In addition to suspending the signature requirement, S.223 also allows for ballots that usually are comingled and counted in person to be counted in the affected individual municipalities.
For example, ballots for items pertaining to the Harwood Unified Union School District are distributed by municipal clerks but then collected and delivered to a school district site for comingling and counting. The temporary state provision will allow those ballots to be counted in each town with the school district then combining totals for election results. The same practice was in place for Town Meeting elections in 2021.
Other provisions covered by the recent legislation that the governor recently signed were S.172 which allows municipal clerks to mail ballots to registered voters. The bill allows towns to put all of their questions on the paper ballots referred to as Australian ballots, including items customarily decided in person. It also offers the option to postpone in-person Town Meeting business until later in the spring when gatherings in person could be held outdoors.
A related bill, S.222, allows for local boards to meet exclusively remotely using internet and telephone technology as long as there are accommodations for the public to be notified and to participate. This adjustment to the state Open Meetings Law runs until Jan. 15, 2023.
More budget discussion Monday
The Waterbury Select Board at its meeting Monday night at 7 p.m. is expected to finalize its plans for Town Meeting. Last week the board discussed the accommodations being made at the state level to allow for alternatives to in-person meetings and voting.
Board members said they missed meeting in person in 2021 but realized the ongoing need for public health precautions. Reflecting the statewide COVID-19 surge, Waterbury has recorded nearly 60% of its 1,260 cases of the pandemic in the past four weeks.
Monday’s meeting will include more discussion of the 2022 town budget which needs to be finalized before the end of the month in order to be on the March 1 ballot.
The board will discuss several other financial items that may result in ballot items. The board is considering several proposals from Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk. One would direct federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to the Edward Farrar Utility District for a water system project in Waterbury Center. Another involves working with the nonprofit organization that runs the Ice Center to address a municipal loan it has. Representatives from the Ice Center’s board of directors are scheduled to join Monday’s meeting to discuss that topic.
The board meets in person with members in the Steele Community Room at the town offices. The public may attend either in person or remotely via zoom. The agenda with the Zoom link is on the town website, waterburyvt.com.
Offices on the ballot
Waterbury Town Clerk Carla Lawrence said she would be at the town offices Monday until 5 p.m. to accept candidate filings for the March 1 ballot. So far, she said several incumbents have already filed paperwork to run for re-election to the Cemetery Commission, Library Commission, and Board of Listers. Select Board member Michael Bard has filed to run for another three-year term, Lawrence said, although no others as of Friday afternoon had filed to run for two other one-year seats on the board. Current office holders Mark Frier and Katie Martin are stepping down.
Waterbury also has two seats to fill on the Harwood Unified Union School Board. Scott Culver, was appointed last summer to fill a vacancy until March. He has said he intends to run for the remaining two years in that position. A full term is also on the ballot with current board member Caitlin Hollister not intending to run again.
New seat at the table for Central Vermont Career Center
Voters will also have a new elected school director position to fill on the March 1 ballot. It would be an at-large representative on a new board that voters also will be asked to create as part of a special measure create a new school district to manage the Central Vermont Career Center.
That proposal will be put to voters in the 18 communities in the six school districts that now send students to the center. The center currently is run by the Barre Unified Union School District with only Barre voters having authority over its budget.
If the proposal to form the independent career center district is approved, a new board would be created to oversee its operations. That 10-member board would have four positions elected at-large, including one director from the Harwood district to serve a three-year term. The other six seats would be filled by appointments from the sending school district school boards after the March 1 election.
Candidates interested in running for the at-large Harwood seat may file to be on the ballot by 5 p.m. Monday. More information about the career center proposal and its board can be found online at cvtcc.org.