Orleans Officials Say More Voter Engagement Needed

ORLEANS – As officials continue to work to strike a balance between promoting discussion at town meeting and improving its efficiency, the idea of a future session spanning multiple nights has been floated as a possibility.

“Some people enjoy taking nights, that’s what I’m hearing,” Kevin Galligan of the select board said during a discussion of town meeting processes on Nov 13. “They want to go nights now, and I’m open to that. If you want to stretch this out over two or three nights, that might be something we consider.”

Orleans has proven capable of wrapping its spring and fall town meetings in one night, even in the face of hefty warrants. But May’s annual town meeting ran close to five hours, prompting requests from residents to work to streamline future sessions. At the same time, last month’s special town meeting left some voters concerned about whether discussion and debate was being stifled.

Jim O’Brien, a 25-year Orleans resident, said he believes that opposing viewpoints on articles have particularly been unwelcome in recent town meetings, creating what he called an “us vs. them mentality” between those who support articles and those who disagree. 

“This is from my point of view, but it becomes a feeling like ‘If you don’t agree with us, you’re in the wrong,’ and the town is always right,” he told the select board.

O’Brien said he believes dissenting views are too often treated as “an obstacle” to attempts at improving town meeting’s efficiency, but that officials should instead welcome the voicing of all opinions.

“I do believe that the voters have a right whenever there’s an opposition point of view for that opposition to be able to be expressed and communicated, and not just from town meeting floor,” he said.

The issue of opposing views and how board and committee members address them came into focus at last month’s special town meeting, when the finance committee declined to specifically address why two members voted against the full committee’s support of an article seeking $500,000 to explore future housing initiatives in town. The article eventually passed.

O’Brien said he believes that town boards and committees have a vested interest in seeing the articles that they put before voters pass.

“I’d like to propose that getting the article passed should not be the primary objective, that getting the article proposed and explained is the objective,” he said.

Town Manager Kim Newman said town staff work to provide voters with the best information available on the articles that will go before town meetings, and that it’s the boards and committees that sponsor them that advocate for those articles.

“It’s important to us that people understand that we don’t have a personal stake necessarily in the outcome of these articles,” she said.

Newman said that educating voters ahead of town meeting remains the principal goal of town staff, and that those efforts will be furthered heading into May’s annual town meeting and beyond.

“We’re going to try some other things, and if it’s three days, it’s three days,” she said, echoing Galligan’s comments about a meeting spanning multiple nights.

Boards and committees routinely hold public meetings where public comment is accepted on articles ahead of the spring and fall sessions. But often those public hearings go unattended by voters.

“There are many avenues to get that information out, but we know some people are showing up to the town meeting and opening the warrant for the very first time,” Galligan said.

Select board member Michael Herman said the board voted on its recommendations for the fall town meeting articles on Sept. 10, weeks ahead of the Oct. 28 meeting.

“And I don’t think there was a single comment or that a single person showed up,” he said. “So I really would love to see us make a more concerted effort to see how we can engage the public and answer their questions.”

Newman said she held a meeting with town staff the day after the fall town meeting to talk about how processes can be improved. Already, she said, a number of ideas have been formulated for increasing communication with voters ahead of May’s annual town meeting.

Specifically, she said staff could begin holding dedicated office hours designed to educate people on upcoming articles, possibly as early as January. The town is also considering other options for furthering voter engagement, including by way of a newsletter and possibly a television show.

“We are going to start every type of media campaign we can around getting information out to the community,” she said.

But while town officials continue to perfect processes ahead of May’s spring session, select board chair Mark Mathison said that the success of town meeting depends on voters’ willingness to take part.

“If you want to have a town meeting form of government, it implies that you participate,” he said. “If you participate only with your vote, so be it. If you participate with your voice, all the better.”