Despite objections from the town moderator and clerk, the Wilton Select Board voted in a split decision to move forward with the typical schedule for Town Meeting, after discussing the issue in an emergency meeting Friday.
The board voted 2-1 to hold town voting on the second Tuesday in March, as usual, and also to go forward with Town Meeting the following Thursday, as is traditional.
Select Board Chair Matt Fish said the “vast majority” of townspeople that have contacted him about the issue expressed a preference for holding the meeting on schedule, as did Selectwoman Kellie Sue Boissonnault, while Selectman Kermit Williams said those that had approached him had expressed the opposite preference.
Williams said the idea of things like voter’s guides being utilized to shorten the Town Meeting was a “fancy” and that a several-hours long meeting in close proximity is a very different risk factor than ballot voting, which only takes a few minutes. He advocated for delaying the voting and Town Meeting for several months, to allow for additional vaccinations and for the meeting to take place outside in better weather.
“I think delay is the only thing that makes sense,” Williams said.
Boissonnault said she was concerned what impact the delay in passing the town budget would have on the day-to-day operations of the town, despite a recent emergency order from the state that allows towns to continue to make “reasonable” expenditures if they decide to delay Town Meeting. She said she would not feel comfortable with any expenditures beyond payroll and utilities or other necessary costs to “keep the lights on.”
She also pointed out there was no guarantee that things would be in a different position in May, or another target date for Town Meeting.
“I am not in favor of postponing this,” she said.
Town Moderator Bill Keefe said he would prefer to defer Town Meeting, saying that the vaccine rollout, while happening slowly in New Hampshire, is underway, and hopefully a few extra months will allow for additional vaccinations of Wilton’s populace.
Town Clerk Jane Farrell also supported a delay, pointing out that the Town Meeting is going to be held within days of the School District Meeting, which is also currently planned to be in-person in March, and having two such large gatherings of a similar pool of people within close proximity could be an exposure risk.
“Do we have a crystal ball? No,” Farrell said. “Do we know more people are going to be immunized by spring? Yes.”
“I just think it’s a needless exposure to a really nasty virus,” Keefe said, of holding the meeting in March. He added that he fears that many people will stay home instead of attending, and called it “anti-democratic” and “a risk we don’t need to take.”
Keefe has authority as the moderator to postpone the Town Meeting if there is an emergency, but said he would prefer not to do that, and would rather have accord between himself and the board. When the board ultimately voted to continue with the March dates, Keefe said he would not make a decision about the status of the Town Meeting until much closer to the date, but said if the meeting was called, he would likely move forward with it, even if there was fewer residents than normal.
Williams initially moved to hold the ballot voting in town on June 8, with the Town Meeting to be held within a week of the ballot voting, but his motion did not gain a second and died on the floor.
A motion to move forward with the traditional March dates for Town Meeting, with ballot voting on March 9 and Town Meeting on March 11, passed 2-1, with Williams opposed.