Town Meeting attendance
Mr. Town Meeting himself, Mr. Winnett compiled this graph of TM attendance for this past Town Meeting and sent it to us.
25 with perfect attendance at the 17 meetings
35 elected by precinct sometime during the year
28 Resignations (19 with no attendance and 9 with some attendance)
4 with no attendance (<1%) who will loose their seat as a TMM
29 current vacancies from 9 different precincts
62 TMMs attended all sessions of the Fall Town Meeting
24 TMMs did not attend any of the session of the Fall Town Meeting
I wrote back and asked if he could find out how many of the 62 TMMs who attended all sessions, stayed the entire time, read magazines, did homework, played on their lap tops, wore their hat in the hall, spoke at the podium about the wrong article or motion, on to many meds, or not enough meds, or have the intellectual prowess to understand whats going on.
A little humor in the question, but clearly from where I sit, many are not paying any attention to what's going on. 10 to 20% leave at the 9:15 break. Some nap, some come to the podium on the wrong article or motion. A few wear there hats in the peoples hall.
The poor attendance AND the lack of understanding among a few, make the case cor a city form of government.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 2:21 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Now that the dust from the election has settled, I am wondering what your plans are going forward? You raised some good points and had some good ideas during the campaign. Framingham has a huge need for some new blood, level headed and innovative, people who can find ways to get things done outside the box. Are you going to be one of those people or are you going to let losing the election be the defining factor in your contribution to the town?
Losing the election in 2002 didn't stop me from doing anything for the Town and this year is no different.
That said, it's painfully clear, the ruling party can ignore anyone who's not one of theirs and as I've done in the past, quietly try to represent the will of my neighbors at Town Meeting.
I hope I/we can live long enough to see an end to the monopolizing of local and state government by the ruling elite, but as a friend of mine said the other day, we may have to wait a generation for any kind of balance in this Town and State government.
I have been hearing all sorts of things about TM attendance, or more accurately, non attendance. I also hear about the fact this town is controlled by a small group of people. Then I hear a suggestion that we go to a city form of government. Now maybe I am missing something, but if we can not get people to be TM members, and we can not get the non-democrats to vote in statewide elections, then it seems apparent that if we go to a mayor, he/she will be one of the chosen few that has all the control now. Again, maybe I am missing something but I don’t think those chosen few are doing a very good job, why would we want to give them even more authority to act without our approval? I think we need to be looking at how to make TM more effective and get more people involved instead of giving up on the idea. Not saying it will be easy to do, but I would rather spend time and effort on making that happen instead of spending time and effort on giving some already entrenched politician here in Framingham even more power.
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