Attributes of fair and open town government.

[paineinthearse]

Although I live in a liberal state, my town government is run by conservatives; rather than being fair and open, it is a closed and private system.

I intend enlist others to help make it more open, but request some thoughts from DU.

Some of my ideas for this new fairness and openness include:

1. All standing committees be elected by citizens (a high percentage is now appointed).
2. Notice of all meetings (with agenda) be posted to the town website at least 48 hours prior to meeting time.
3. Perliminary (draft) minutes be posted to the town website within 48 hours of the meeting. Final (approved) minutes be posted within 24 hours of the subsequent meeting.

I would appreciate any other ideas along these lines.

edited typo.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. I like ideas 2 and 3. Idea 1 will just get you more of the same and

isn't really workable, IMHO. What happens when vacancies arise due to resignation or health? How would electors know who to vote for? Would you want to run a campaign to serve for free on a committee that has no power, except to recommend?

I would suggest working to change the make-up of your town council. Are members elected at large or by district/area?

Perhaps you could attract some candidates to run on an "open government" slate and bring attention to your issues as you change the make-up of the council.

[paineinthearse]

4. #1 direct elections

First we are a small town, so there are no "electors"

Second, if there is a vacancy due to death, resignation or whatever, I envision a bylaw prescribing an appointive process for the duration of the term.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. "electors" are the voting public.

I live in Montana in a small city. Here we elect the city counsel, mayor, City Clerk, DA, and a few more. The councel and mayor through majority vote appoint volunteers to committees.


(spelling on edit)

[seventythree]

2. don't you have an open meetings law

in your state? Notice and agenda are required to be posted under the Open Meetings Act -- website is nice, a good platform idea for a candidate, but not necessary if they are posted outside city hall, etc. like with OMA. Ditto with draft minutes, good platform idea. Nothing gets governments on their toes like citizen watchfulness -- no one shows up to meetings, then the skullduggery starts. Are you talking town? as in township? or city? Sometimes meetings can be at lousy times -- ie. township meetings at 7am -- a more acceptable meeting time can help activists to attend. A group can share the meeting responsibility and report back on happenings to the others.

[paineinthearse]

3. Good ideas, keep them coming

This is a town of 4000. It has town meeting form of government. Positions required to be elected by state statute include town clerk, moderator, board of selectmen (I call it select board), planning board and board of health. All other committees, except finance/advisory are appointed, generally by the select board. Advisory is appointed by chair of the select board, moderator and town clerk; exception: they self-appoint vacancies for the duration of the term.

[goodhue]

6. Forms of local government vary widely from state to state

"Town meeting" form means nothing in Minnesota for example.

But most states have open meeting or sunshine laws, which would seem to address your basic concerns. I agree with others that #2 & #3 would be good practice, whereas #1 potentially makes things worse. I don't see logic to electing advisory boards. If board has independent authority then election may be way to go.

As to Massachussets Municipalities, check out MMA . . .
http://www.mma.org/local_government/index.html

[welshTerrier2]

5. a few comments ...

idea #1 is not a good idea for most committees ... for example, mrs. wt2 is on Ashland's Open Space Committee ... i'm on the town's Town Forest Committee ... there usually are not enough people willing to work on these and many other committees ... while it's true our town's selectmen must approve each new committee member, the positions really are not political ... they're just happy they can fill the vacancies ... now, certain committees are more political ... for example, the Planning Board and the Comprehensive Planning Committee have control over development projects in the town ... many of the selectmen are, or were, developers ... they never met a development project they didn't like ... in these cases, you would want more citizen participation as to who can join the committees ... finally, even on non-political appointments, there should be reasonable notice published regarding vacancies ...

Ashland has it's own local cable station which does me absolutely no good because i have satellite TV and can't get the station ... i believe all Selectmen meetings and Town Meetings are broadcast live ...

my idea to achieve some of the goals you seek take a somewhat different approach ... i, of course, completely agree with you that more disclosure is beneficial ... my approach, however, is to try to get citizens more involved with all levels of government ... your approach, as stated, puts greater emphasis on the conduct of government officials ... that's OK for starters but we won't make any progress until more citizens get involved ...

what i'm hoping to do is try to get my DTC to take a more active role reaching out to Democrats in my town ... i hope to do this by soliciting their (i.e. registered Democrats) input on a regular basis ... the only time most citizens here from the Party or their elected reps is at election time ; that needs to change ...

ultimately, if the citizenry is more involved, those in power will be forced to be more responsive to their needs ... it's not an "either-or" proposition; both approaches are necessary ...

[Rockholm]

7. Ashland? Are You and Ronnie Crews Neighbors?

My sympathies if you are!

[welshTerrier2]

9. Sympathy ???

you can know no greater joy than having helped to defeat him ...

although it would be truly sickening to have him live near me ... fortunately, he doesn't ...

[paineinthearse]

8. Interesting. But I don't understand why appointments are preferred over

direction election.

To me, appointments invite cronnyism. With direct election, everyone and anyone plays on a level playing field. Many in my town who want to partcipate are locked out because they are ideologically opposed to the "appointers".

Under an elected system, if candidates fail to register and run, then you have the appointive process to fall back on.

[welshTerrier2]

10. preferred only under certain conditions for certain committees ...

i guess my point was that for many town committees, we can't even fill the vacancies ... and i fear fewer would apply if they had to stand for election ... in cases where you have several or many interested in filling a single vacancy, perhaps direct elections would be better ...

it just doesn't seem like a problem when it comes to the non-political committees though ... again, i serve on the Town Forest Committee ... we do stuff like tell people not to hurt the trees ... we've had two open vacancies for almost 6 months now ... if someone wants to join, the selectman ask them a question or two and you're hired ...

putting this before Town Meeting would seem like a waste of time ... those Town Meetings are already way too long ... i'm not at all opposed to direct elections ... i just think that depending on the circumstances, it might be overkill ...

[John Q. Citizen]

12. My point is if you can't elect a liberal town counsel, why would you be

able to elect liberal committee persons? If you could elect a liberal counsel then they would most likely appoint liberal committees.

Are councel members elected at large or by district/area?