No vote clickers Monday. TA and SB Chair Steve Kerrigan Dodge Resident Questions as the Mystery Deepens About May Election and Town Meeting Problems. MOAs still not ready...

 

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With time running out until Special Town Meeting on Monday, the town is unprepared in several ways.     

No "Vote Clickers" for Monday's Special Town Meeting

The town invested a lot in an electronic voting system for use at town meetings:  we used them at the outdoor Annual town meeting in 2021 and the indoor meeting in May.   They seem to have been well received despite some questionable results in May. The number of votes collected varied by 10% or 20% from one voice to the next.

Unfortunately, now won't be available for use on Monday because the town won't have someone trained and available to operate it.   Town Administrator Kate Hodges made the announcement at the Select Board's meeting on October 31st.   It wasn't totally clear to me what the issue was...something about training that would cost $5,000.  

No answers on what happened with the Election Warrant in May

Question 2 on Monday will ask for permission to ask the Legislature for a Special Act to ratify Lancaster's election in May.

The town has explained that the Annual Town Election Warrant was posted "six days" before the election.  State law requires the warrant to be posted 14 days in advance.

The town was unable to produce a copy of that warrant on request.   Kate Hodges subsequently told me she has a copy in her office that is signed by the Select Board, but not the constable.   She was repeatedly unable to produce that either, though.

In response to a request for correspondence, the Town Administrator revealed that she corresponded with Town Counsel about "issues with the Election warrant" at least three times starting on May 5th.      This would be town counsel correspondence paid for by the town, but Hodges refused to share it.

At the warrant review meeting on November 3rd Hodges said that if the town did not approve the request for special legislation, we would need to hold a special election.   But she's released no information on what procedure that would follow.   (What would have happened if we didn't hold a special meeting this month?)

So: the election was fine, but not so fine that we won't need the legislature to pass a Special Act to validate it.   

No answers on what's going on with the Economic Development Committee bylaw passed in May

The town forgot to submit the "Economic Development Committee" bylaw passed in May to the state, and the deadline to do so passed six months ago.   

This existence of that committee would be crucial to the 40R bylaw and Question 3:  a member of that committee is required to be on the special "Approval Committee" that would consider 40R plans.

At the November 3rd warrant review meeting Select Board Chair Steve Kerrigan answered a question about this by saying that the committee "existed but hadn't been populated."   This isn't the case however, the bylaw would not take effect without a review from the Attorney General's office.

Kerrigan did not respond to multiple emails asking for clarification.

Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) still not ready or signed

Unless the town is keeping them a secret this weekend, the MOAs for the zoning articles are still not ready.   The last draft released to the town last week contained many blanks and did not include any of the referenced exhibits.   It's not clear when or if they will be signed, but now the town will certainly not have any opportunity to review them before a vote.

The MOA situation, and lack of communication from the town, are already a crisis for the town.    Presumably, the Select Board will withdraw the zoning articles without a firm agreement for the Capital Group to make the necessary road improvement.  (Otherwise, the town will be on the hook.)  However this year anything seems possible.