Unlike a traditional Town Meeting, in which voters discuss and make changes to the warrant at the meeting itself, deliberative sessions give voters in SB2 towns and school districts the ability to discuss, amend and approve the proposed warrant before residents vote.
Bob Edwards has been the ConVal School District moderator for six years. He said deliberative sessions are “important because it’s the only opportunity resident voters have to listen to warrant articles and be able to speak to them.”
Edwards said he has seen the largest turnouts at deliberative sessions when one of the proposed articles is controversial, including big increases to the budget. Then, “you’ll see people come and speak,” said Edwards. He said they’ve had a year when the deliberative session lasted 17 minutes and a year where people were scared the budget might not pass and attendees were lined up at the microphone.
Residents at deliberative sessions can propose and vote to amend an article. They are not permitted to amend everything. They can’t amend the default budget, teacher contracts or zoning amendments. They can’t alter the subject matter of the article but they can amend the dollar amount of articles proposing to use funds.
“I’ve seen times when they try to amend the operating budget,” Edwards said. “They could amend the warrant article and reduce the dollar amount to zero.”
But in his experience, the operating budget is most often left unchanged.
“I think most people feel the Budget Committee and School Board members are very thoughtful and do the best they can to keep the budget under control,” said Edwards.
But most eligible voters don’t come to deliberative sessions, and the sessions often bring in small attendances. Edwards said.
“Society is very busy these days, and we don’t get the turnout we used to [in both deliberative sessions and Town Meetings],” he said.
Edwards said bad weather can deter people, and some don’t feel the need to go because they have already made up their minds. Still, they miss the opportunity to speak on articles, amend articles and protect articles from being amended.
“I would encourage people to take an interest, read the warrant articles, understand them, ask questions about them, call selectmen, School Board members,” Edwards said. “Then come and voice your opinion by your vote.”