HomeMy WebLinkAbout_02112019-7051Town Government Study Committee
Minutes of the meeting of February 11, 2019. The meeting took place in the Public Safety
Facility Training Room, 4 Fairgrounds Road, Nantucket, MA 02554. Members of the committee
present were: John Brescher, Kristie Ferrantella, Rick Atherton, and Curtis Barnes (1:22), Linda
Williams (1:56).
1) Chair John Brescher called the meeting to order at 1:22 with a quorum.
2) Agenda: Rick Atherton moved approval of the agenda, seconded by Curtis Barnes. All
voted in favor
3) Public Comment: None.
4) Approval of minutes. Rick has a few edits for Kristie.
5) Review of papers. None.
6) Meeting for timeline. Would like to meet every two weeks. February break falls in 2
weeks. March 4, 2019 at 1pm will be next meeting.
7) Discussion of trip to Falmouth.
Overview of trip to Falmouth: The attendees learned a lot from their officials and town
meeting reps. Curtis expressed Falmouth’s representative Town meeting is the best way
to represent their constituents. Town Meeting is as representative as the reps want it to
be; you need good reps to make this work. Their Town Hall was very open and
welcoming, and had a lot of parking. Our offices are closed and not welcoming. Also,
their Town Clerk greeted everyone as they walked in. Our town offices are sprawled
across the island. It would be great to see a similar structure as Barnstable or Falmouth.
Falmouth’s Town Clerk was very involved with Select Board and very active in town
government.
How it works: Precincts have meetings two weeks before town meeting. They also met
with the Town Manager and all department heads. This is something Nantucket has
semi-implemented but the meetings with department heads is not public. Pre-meetings
are open to public; for us, they are closed. There are 9 precincts with 27 reps in each
precinct and then 2 state reps, for a total of 245 reps. Each rep is elected for 3 year
terms and must attend Town Meeting. Their town moderator holds orientation sessions
for new reps for onboarding. This would be a great thing for Nantucket to implement to
smooth the onboarding process of our board.
Keeping citizens engaged: Falmouth has a Citizens Municipal Academy, which hosts
public forums to discuss all issues that the public would be interested in. Their town reps
said Falmouth likes to ask a lot of questions, so they try to provide as much information
to the public as possible. All department heads attend the pre-meetings for each
precinct. We were able to bring back a sample of their warrant. It seems that Nantucket
changes our warrant so many times, even up until town meeting floor, whereas
Falmouth’s seems more organized. Falmouth’s flow of information helps voters be ready
and knowledgeable for pre-meeting and for Town Meeting. Curtis mentioned that Rob
McNeil has been doing public forums about DPW updates and this is a great example of
how our government should be informing the public. Their town warrant has clear
financial information in the back. They also have color zoning maps in the back, which
could help citizens understand the articles.
Electronic Voting: Falmouth invested in an e-voting system. They spent $12,000 to get
250 widgets. Don’t use it for every vote. Only if the moderator couldn’t determine the
voice count, or 20 reps could request it if they wanted to anonymous. Have been using it
for 2-3 years. It would cost a lot more for Nantucket to purchase for all voters.
Takeaways: Drawing districts may be the most difficult thing for Nantucket. Their districts
are based on population and not on voter registration. They suggested having the same
number of people per precinct. Kristie asked if Falmouth has as large of a second home
owner base as we do. It could be difficult to split our population. How do we make sure
Non-voting tax payers are represented? We would need a consultant to implement a
representative town meeting if we wanted to take this route to recommend this form of
government. The town officials and town meeting reps were happy to help us in anyway
possible.
Follow up questions: What kind of attendance do they get for non-reps? Do they have a
large non-voting tax payer base? Do they have a job description for Town Clerk?
8) Other Business. The TGSC should have an update for the Select Board before Town
Meeting. March 13th would be our ideal date. John will try to get us on the March 6 or
13th agenda.
Tom Dixon has expressed interest in the open position on TGSC.
The TGSC would like to have a hand out for Town Meeting.
9) Next meeting is March 4, 2019 at 1pm
10) Linda made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Curtis, all voted in favor. The
meeting was adjourned at 2:14pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kristie Ferrantella, Recording Secretary