“Let’s use Town Meeting as a tool.” This was Mr. [Charlie] Bletzer, Select Board Member, at the April 1 Select Board meeting. Though it was April Fool’s Day, he wasn’t joking. He proposed adding a nonbinding question (allowing firearms in municipal buildings and parks – Article 12) to the May 17th election ballot. In addition, he proposed asking Town Meeting members to “hold off” with only four days before the spring Town Meeting and not discuss Article 12 and instead use the (“nonbinding”) results at fall Town Meeting to vote accordingly.
Bletzer said, “It’s the only fair democratic way to do it.”
Confused? We are. Why would a member of the Select Board try to circumvent our form of town government? Several Town Meeting members shared that concern in the audience and stood up to speak, imploring Mr. Bletzer to let Town Meeting members do their jobs. Even Mr. [Kevin] Canty, Select Board member, mentioned it would likely be “perceived to be an end-run to Town Meeting debate.” Many in the room agreed. You could hear that.
The Select Board voted to approve this agenda item, 3-2 (no from Mr. [John] Mahoney and Mr. Canty).
A short time later my sister, Jenny Healy, spoke [during] public comment. She was concerned that given the lack of specifics in the agenda for that nonbinding question, the Select Board may be in violation of Open Meeting Law. I was surprised this was not mentioned in the Plymouth Independent’s article on April 3.
As someone who is sitting in one of those front two rows at Select Board most Tuesdays, I was surprised that although the article in the Plymouth Independent touches on Mr. Canty’s remarks regarding bypassing Town Meeting member’s authority and asking that that they vote according to a nonbinding result at the fall Town Meeting (on Article 12, a hotly debated article on the April 5 warrant, and an article which hasn’t yet been debated at Town Meeting), it makes no mention that the Select Board was likely violating Open Meeting Law: “The list of topics shall have sufficient specificity to reasonably advise the public of the issues to be discussed at the meeting.”
Mr. Bletzer’s agenda item had no specifics and called for a vote.
We filed an Open Meeting Law violation complaint with the Select Board and cc’d the attorney general. The residents of Plymouth deserve fair and transparent discourse. We deserve better.
– Kara Mallon