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DOES ANYONE HAVE A CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON?
At last Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting, one of the agenda items read “2014-47 ORDER – Consideration of an order for Public Hearing on a proposed Charter Amendment to reduce the number of signatures necessary to call a Special Town Meeting to consider budget issues from 15 percent of the qualified voters voting in the last gubernatorial election to 10 percent of the qualified voters voting in the last gubernatorial election.”
This is the latest attempt to keep the people from voting on the Municipal Budget by departments. You can tell this because there are two other sections in our Charters that have the same requirement but they are NOT part of this Charter Amendment.
The Charter Commission put this into the Charter because they thought that was a fair number to ensure misuse of the Charter. However, if it is fair in one section it should be fair in all sections that currently have the same requirements. If you change it in one area it should be changed for all the others because one is no more important than another.
Article VIII, Initiative, Referendum, Recall and Special Town Meetings of our Charter deal with petition requirements. In Section 8.22(a); Section 8.31(b) 1 and Section 8.42(a) all read the same and that is:
Section 8.22(a) – Number of Signatures. Initiative and referendum petitions must be signed by qualified voters of the Town at least equal in number to 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election.
Section 8.31(b) 1 – Petitions - Number of Signatures. Recall petitions must be signed by qualified voters of the Town at least equal in number to 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election or, in the case of a recall of a Councilor elected from a district, signed by qualified voters of the district equal in number to at least 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters from that district who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election.
Section 8.42(a) – Number of Signatures. Petitions calling for a Special Town Meeting must be signed by qualified voters of the Town equal in number to at least 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election.
As you can see that when dealing with petitions the requirement for the number of signatures is exactly the same so why are we ONLY amending one and not the others?
Changes to our Charter should always be uniform because if they apply to one; they should apply to all. When you have numerous sections with the same requirements, changing one should change them all because the rational for the initial requirement is the same for all.
This Charter Amendment should be immediately changed to include the other two sections of our Charter in order to keep it uniform.
This Charter Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with the people voting on the Municipal Budget by departments and for Councilor Ward and Bickford to indicate it does is totally ludicrous. Having to gather X numbers of signatures and going through a time consuming process is not the same as voting on the Municipal Budget by departments. This is nothing more than yet another delaying tactic by our Town Council to keep the people from voting on the Municipal Budget.
After six years of delays, surveys and referendum questions, it is time to stop the stalling and give the people what they have asked for.
Larry Fillmore
This is the latest attempt to keep the people from voting on the Municipal Budget by departments. You can tell this because there are two other sections in our Charters that have the same requirement but they are NOT part of this Charter Amendment.
The Charter Commission put this into the Charter because they thought that was a fair number to ensure misuse of the Charter. However, if it is fair in one section it should be fair in all sections that currently have the same requirements. If you change it in one area it should be changed for all the others because one is no more important than another.
Article VIII, Initiative, Referendum, Recall and Special Town Meetings of our Charter deal with petition requirements. In Section 8.22(a); Section 8.31(b) 1 and Section 8.42(a) all read the same and that is:
Section 8.22(a) – Number of Signatures. Initiative and referendum petitions must be signed by qualified voters of the Town at least equal in number to 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election.
Section 8.31(b) 1 – Petitions - Number of Signatures. Recall petitions must be signed by qualified voters of the Town at least equal in number to 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election or, in the case of a recall of a Councilor elected from a district, signed by qualified voters of the district equal in number to at least 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters from that district who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election.
Section 8.42(a) – Number of Signatures. Petitions calling for a Special Town Meeting must be signed by qualified voters of the Town equal in number to at least 15 percent of the total number of qualified voters who cast votes for Governor in the most recent gubernatorial election.
As you can see that when dealing with petitions the requirement for the number of signatures is exactly the same so why are we ONLY amending one and not the others?
Changes to our Charter should always be uniform because if they apply to one; they should apply to all. When you have numerous sections with the same requirements, changing one should change them all because the rational for the initial requirement is the same for all.
This Charter Amendment should be immediately changed to include the other two sections of our Charter in order to keep it uniform.
This Charter Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with the people voting on the Municipal Budget by departments and for Councilor Ward and Bickford to indicate it does is totally ludicrous. Having to gather X numbers of signatures and going through a time consuming process is not the same as voting on the Municipal Budget by departments. This is nothing more than yet another delaying tactic by our Town Council to keep the people from voting on the Municipal Budget.
After six years of delays, surveys and referendum questions, it is time to stop the stalling and give the people what they have asked for.
Larry Fillmore
1 comment:
This is no more than a run-around so that we, the public, cannot vote on the town budget. AND the reason why the town attorney's budget it always overspent.
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