Town Counsel deems Warrant Article Two ‘unlawful’

Jan. 9, 2019 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – The Jan. 17 Special Town Meeting was the subject of much discussion at the Longmeadow Select Board’s Jan. 7 meeting, when the board was told by Town Moderator Rebecca Townsend that Town Counsel deemed Warrant Article Two “unlawful.”

Townsend attended the Select Board meeting to discuss the upcoming Special Town Meeting, its’ procedures and guidelines to discussions. She explained that should there be any inclement weather, she would be able to recess Town Meeting and make announcements in concert with other town officials.

As for general procedures, Townsend explained that she expects the meeting to be highly attended. All non–voters will report to the auditorium, unless of course there is a young child with a parent. If the individual is a town employee who lives out of town, a school employee who lives out of town, or a teen who is not yet of voting age, they will be asked to sit in the auditorium. Non–voters are not allowed to speak at Town Meeting, as it is for voters only.

The gymnasium will be the space that voters should report to, and it will be the main speaking room. With that said, there will be an audio feed into the auditorium. If the gymnasium is filled, there will be a special section within the auditorium for voters to sit. This space will be known as overflow room number one. Should the auditorium become full, individuals will report to overflow room two, otherwise known as the school cafeteria. Townsend encouraged all Town Meeting participants, if possible, to sit toward the front of the room first.

“Sit toward the front; if you know you’re going to be a speaker, show up early,” Townsend said.

Articles One and Three

Townsend shared that she had spoken with all of the lead petitioners, and that the lead petitioner for article one aims to move to take no action on article one. Instead, he will focus his efforts on article three. Article Three is nearly identical to Article One, however article three contains a revision in item F.

Article Three looks to amend the Home Rule Charter to grant registered voters the power to recall elected officials in Longmeadow. Should this article be passed, the Town Clerk would then submit a bill that would grant registered voters the power to recall specified elected officials in Longmeadow to the State Legislature. Select Board Chair Mark Gold reiterated at the meeting that there is no guarantee that the bill will pass once the petition reaches the legislature.

Article Two

Townsend explained that Town Counsel shared that his official opinion on Article Two is that it is unlawful. Gold expressed his surprise that he hadn’t yet heard this was Town Counsel’s opinion.

Town Manager Stephen Crane suggested that the Town Counsel may have discussed this with the petitioner directly, to which Gold expressed his dissatisfaction.

“The Town Counsel works for us, not the petitioners. The fact that he’s talking to them and not us disturbs me as you can tell by the tone of my voice,” Gold said. “There’s something wrong with that. We go into this year after year, we have ridiculous legal fees because we have citizens all over the place using our town counsels time that sometimes you [Crane] don’t know about and oftentimes we [Select Board] don’t know about. I just take offense to the fact that he’s discussing things with petitioners that he’s not letting the Select Board know.”

Townsend interjected, stating that in her past and recent discussions with the Town Counsel she had asked him if he would be willing to talk to petitioners, to which he stated no.

Changing the trajectory of the discussion, Gold questioned what would happen if the petitioner chooses to pursue this warrant article at Town Meeting despite Town Counsel stating that it is unlawful.

“We can’t stop people from voting. This is going to be an emotionally charged Town Meeting. My opinion is people are going to walk in there knowing how they’re going to vote and whether they vote for or against, most Town Meetings are like that. My concern is that to say that you’re offering an opinion that it’s not legal and it’s passed anyway, we’re then wasting our time because we’re just not going to do it [enact the article.]” Gold stated.

Select Board Vice Chair Marie Angelides responded, “We’ll deal with it if we have to deal with it. I won’t worry about it until it [article two] passes. We can ask for written opinion from our attorney, but I wouldn’t worry about it now.”

Crane circled back, stating that the Jan. 17 meeting has the potential to be an intense one, and that the Town Counsel has in the past reviewed citizen’s petitions in anticipation to providing legal guidance directly to the legislative branch.

“I don’t want to make it seem like Mike [Callan, Town Counsel] hasn’t been providing good service, he has handled this situation exactly as he’s handled most of them,” Crane stated. “I get it, he should’ve notified us, I think it was more of an oversight not an intent to keep the board in the dark.”

Townsend closed this portion of the discussion, stating she would be seeking that the Town Counsel share a more full description to residents at Town Meeting on his opinion of article two. Additionally, she said she would request that the Finance Committee, Select Board and School Committee issue a recommendation “one way or another” on this article.

Discussion Allowances

Members of the Select Board and Townsend all appeared to agree that they are anticipating a well–attended Town Meeting. Townsend shared what will and won’t be discussed at Town Meeting as she specifically addressed Article Three.

“It [Article Three] has very specific details Town can discuss, whether or not we should add this provision to the charter, we can discuss why the particular boards chosen, and that’s it. We cannot discuss the use of a recall provision that we don’t yet have in a particular case that people would like to or not like to use the recall provision,” she explained. “We cannot discuss character at a Town Meeting, whether good or ill, whether somebody is wonderful or somebody is rotten. We cannot speculate on motives.”

She continued to add that while people may have “a lot of things to say about a wide variety of topics, the range upon which they may speak at Town Meeting is narrow.”

“I will call to order anybody who strays beyond the scope of the article, and I want to make sure that is absolutely clear,” she added.

Finally, in regard to Town Meeting, Townsend shared that the process of voting by ballot has changed. Should voting by ballot need to occur, residents will be directed what to do.

No signs are permitted at Town Meeting indoors; no literature can be distributed. Residents are allowed to stand outside the High School with signs, however free–standing signs are not permissible.

Special Town Meeting will take place on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Longmeadow High School, 95 Grassy Gutter Rd. in Longmeadow.

Also discussed at the Select Board meeting was upcoming election dates and the Spring Town Meeting. Town Clerk Katherine Ingram recommended that June 11, 2019 be Longmeadow’s Spring Town Meeting, as a preliminary election is set to take place on April 23.

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