Date: Fri 15-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-town-meeting-charter

Full Text:

Town Meeting Deserves A Proper Burial

Been to a town meeting lately?

You could spend a very long time looking for someone in Newtown who could

answer yes to that question. Even the town meeting vote in October on the $4

million library expansion, which drew 260 voters to the high school

auditorium, was an extremely poor showing for a town with 11,500 registered

voters. The turnout for that meeting was a little over two percent. The

turnout for last week's town meeting to decide on the expenditure of $130,000

for the purchase of property on Commerce Road was two - not two percent, two

voters. And both of those people were reporters who were paid to be present.

Two other people were there. Town Clerk Cindy Smith and First Selectman Bob

Cascella. The reporters voted to spend the $130,000, and everyone called it a

night.

Over the years, we have extolled the virtues of the town meeting in this space

repeatedly. The town meeting is the one place where local issues are addressed

by non-officials; people not only get to decide, they get to persuade as well.

The town meeting is democracy at its most basic level, pure and

comprehensible. But these virtues are meaningless when no one participates.

The decisions made by a town meeting of two, or even two hundred people, may

be good decisions, but they certainly are not decisions that can be certified

as representative of the town.

The people of Newtown have let the town meeting die, and it's time that it was

given a proper burial. The newly convened Charter Revision Commission should

take steps to transfer many of the powers of the town meeting to the

Legislative Council. The council should be authorized to make town

expenditures of up to $1 million, with a provision for residents to petition a

referendum vote on expenditures they don't agree with. Expenditures of over $1

million should be subject to an automatic referendum vote.

The town meeting has had a wonderful tradition in Newtown - a tradition that

has included great amateur oration, long emotional debates, some eccentricity,

and more than a little laughter. We have hated to see the town meeting lose

popularity, but we can no longer pretend that it is important to the people of

Newtown. They have decided, by staying home, that this once-proud local

institution is a thing of the past.