2017 Town Meeting - Night Two

Another fun night at Town Hall.  As has been our tradition for several years,the second night of town meeting is a Special Town Meeting.  This allows us to pass several items quickly, usually budget items related to the current year's budget, and submit the results to the attorney general's office for approval early.  If they were a part of the regular meeting's results, they wouldn't be approved until the fall.

I was a few minutes late tonight.  I had a scout meeting beforehand, and I needed to try and resolve a few items regarding a trip this weekend before leaving.  I didn't miss much, but it did mean that I had to sit in the back.  There is a group of regulars who sit back there every session and hold a social club.  I really wish they would pay attention to the meeting.  They were elected to represent their precincts, but if they don't want to be there, they should stop going.  Get a table at a bar and watch the proceedings on ACMI.

We opened with Dean Carman, our newly elected treasurer delivering the Treasurer's Report.  It sounds like he has a handle on his new position, and I look forward to seeing how his tenure goes.  Depending on other votes, he may be our last elected treasurer.

Article 1 of the Special Town Meeting (STM) was the last of the zoning articles.  It appeared in the special, because it wasn't proposed in time for the general.  The idea was to change the definition of Usable Open Space to allow a 20' rear yard, allowing houses to shift away from the street.  The current definition requires an area with a minimum dimension of 25' in order to qualify.  Since the rear setback is defined as 20', in most cases, this just increased the setback.  The proposed minimum dimension for 20' for new construction only if the driveway was at grade would serve as the final piece of the changes aimed at changing the new dominant house type, the duplex with basement parking.  There was some concern that this was just a boon to developers looking to add volume to houses, but after terminating debate, it passed by a 7:1 margin.

I guess STM article 2 was technically a zoning article, but it was really a one-year moratorium of implementing regulations on recreational marijuana.  There was an amendment to increase the delay to two years, but it was presented tonight as merely requiring a full year's delay.  In the end, that was voted down, and the main motion was approved.

The next two articles, appropriations for school construction, was postponed until May 3 to coincide with other capital budget items.  The final STM article was a transfer of funds out of the special education reserve into the school budget to cover increased spending requirements.  It was easily passed before heading to break.

After break, we started back on the plastic bag ban article.  We left this topic open at the end of the last session.  There was a good discussion about the merits, but it was finally time to vote.  My amendment was passed unanimously on a voice vote - no 3/16" thick bags for us.  The amendment proposing an exemption for bags with books was defeated, and the ban was passed 188-21.

We then opened the consent agenda.  This was an initiative of the Moderator's from last year.  He assembles a list of those articles that are unlikely to have much discussion or debate, and after reviewing the last, we vote the recommended action on all of them at once.  This year's list included town email accounts for members of town bodies (no action, already policy), acceptance of local option taxes (no action, none available), rescinding previous borrowing authorizations, funding public art (no action), funding for sewer and water main work, appropriations for town events, miscellaneous appropriations, funding community service, funding the overlay reserve, transfer of cemetery funds, setting aside long term stabilization funds, and a resolution on transparency in political donations (no action).  All that work in five minutes.

We went back to article 15 which had been postponed from Monday.  This was the Pride Commission for Arlington.  There were some moving statements from several members.  There was even a discussion about how a vote against the motion didn't need to be a bigoted vote.  There was a question about why this was needed when we have a human rights commission already.  The discussion included a reminder that we have a lot of commissions with similar missions, but each of them addresses the needs of a particular group.  This was passed overwhelmingly.

Now on to eighteen, regarding appraisal of town property.  During the previous two meetings, there were articles asking us to approve selling easements on property back to the property owners.  There was a fair bit of discussion regarding how best to appraise the value of those easements.  The proposed article would require the town to properly appraise the value before entering into a sales agreement.  There was an attempt to require an outside appraisal for every case, but that wass defeated.  The measure passed strongly.

We then opened the discussion on whether to have a town-wide vote to change our treasurer from an elected to an appointed position.  The pro side was concerned about our ability to continue to attract knowledgeable candidates from the residents.  The con side was asking to vote no this ear and consider a yes vote next year once the new treasurer's policies have had an opportunity be implemented.  My concern is that makes the vote more of a referendum on the person rather than the position.  However, we ran out of time, and will need to return Monday to finish the discussion.

I stuck around to help collect and sort the voting clickers.  There was only one volunteer to help the  organizers tonight.  If you have or know a high school kid in need of Community Service hours, this is a great gig.  Just send an email to the Moderator.