COMMENTS
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20151015/NEWS02/151019612
Published October 15, 2015 in the Rutland Herald
Agencies given a break from gathering signatures
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — Social service agencies which in the past have scrambled to collect hundreds of signatures to get their funding requests on the Town Meeting Day ballot can relax.
The Springfield Select Board on Monday adopted a new policy that will give those agencies a bye from collecting more than 300 signatures, as long as voters approved their funding requests a year ago and they aren’t asking for additional funds.
The board approved the new policy, but made clear it was only binding on the 2016 town meeting ballot and future select boards would have to decide the policy anew.
The vote to adopt the new policy was 3 to 1, with Selectman George McNaughton opposing the move.
McNaughton said he felt the move was a step away from the Select Board having control over the town budget and he said he opposed any move to bypass the board.
The Select Board had rejected the policy change a year ago on a 2 to 2 tie.
Town Clerk Barbara Courchesne had outlined the change, saying it would save time in her office from verifying the hundreds of signatures on the dozen or so petitions. Courchesne said the policy change was drafted and supported by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, as well as allowed under state law.
Courchesne said some social service agencies already bundled their petitions to save them time, but all the agencies participated in the effort to collect the signatures.
McNaughton made a motion to have voters decide the issue of whether the social service agencies could avoid the petition process, but his motion failed for lack of a second.
Selectwoman Stephanie Thompson said she felt she had been elected by townspeople to make such decisions.
Thompson said she had worked until recently for one of the social service agencies that routinely get approved by the voters (the Springfield Family Center), and that gathering the necessary signatures was a big drain on a small staff.
“It saves a lot of valuable time, and it still goes on the ballot,” she said.
She said many of the agencies are “approved year after year” with no increase or a very modest increase.
“This is just the process of collecting the signatures,” added Selectman Walter Martone. “The agency is still going to have to convince the public. I don’t think a referendum is necessary.”
Select Board Chairman Kristi Morris said he favored giving the policy a one-year test.
