At their Jan. 24 meeting, the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen approved the schedule for this year’s budget creation process. With this approval, comes the decision to hold this year’s annual town meeting by referendum vote.
As they have in recent years, Waldoboro residents will vote at town meeting by secret ballot, instead of traditional open town meeting. At the Jan. 24 meeting, the selectmen debated at length the merits of reverting to open meeting.
Town Manager John Spear presented two possible calendars for the budget creation process to the selectmen at the meeting. Because open town meeting requires much less lead-time than referendum, the calendars were somewhat different. Approving a calendar, therefore, meant deciding between open town meeting and referendum.
At the last two town meetings – held by referendum vote – voters rejected multiple department budgets. Then, in order to maintain operation of those departments, special town meetings were scheduled to obtain budget approval. The last two years, those special town meetings were held by open town meeting.
This aggravated some residents, because turnout at the open special town meetings was significantly smaller than at the initial referendum town meetings. In most cases, the articles passed at open town meeting were unchanged from the amounts voted down at the polls.
In August 2011, nine residents filed a lawsuit against the town. The residents claim that the open special town meetings violated a 2008 town meeting vote. In that vote, residents approved an article directing the town to hold all future town meetings by referendum vote.
In November 2011, a Lincoln County Superior Court judge threw out that lawsuit, agreeing with the town that state law vests the authority to decide voting method for town with the selectmen, unless designated in a town charter. Waldoboro does not have a town charter.
In December 2011, the residents filed an appeal with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland. That appeal is ongoing.
On Jan. 24, when asked to decide between referendum and open town meeting, three of the four selectmen voiced support for open town meeting. Selectmen Ted Wooster initiated a vote for the open town meeting calendar, seconded by Selectman Becky Maxwell.
Those in favor of open town meeting cited the benefits of residents having an opportunity to gather and discuss the budget items and ask questions before voting. Open town meetings are also significantly cheaper than referendum town meetings, town officials said.
“In both cases, we ended up in an open town meeting anyway,” said Chairman Steve Cartwright. “The system is messy and not working well with the referendum.”
Selectmen Craig Cooley cautioned the selectmen against calling for open town meeting while the appeal of the voting method lawsuit is still pending. “I don’t know if this is a wise decision,” Cooley said. “I’d also prefer to honor the wishes of the voters” at the 2008 town meeting.
Resident Ron Miller, an outspoken advocate of referendum voting, told the selectmen he had researched other towns that have moved to referendum town meetings. When budget items fail in those towns, he said, the towns adjust the budget figures and bring the items back to a referendum vote.
“I don’t understand why we’re the only town that can’t resolve this issue,” Miller said.
When the selectmen scheduled to open town meetings the last two years, they said they couldn’t go back to referendum because a “no” vote does not provide insight as to what the voters wanted. Selectmen said there is no way to tell how much – if any – the voters wanted to cut. The open town meeting allows residents to amend the budget articles. Several budgets were reduced at the 2011 open special town meeting.
The board voted 2 to 1 against the open town meeting calendar, with Cartwright opposed and Maxwell abstaining.
Cooley then initiated a vote for the referendum calendar, seconded by Maxwell. The selectmen voted 3 to 1 in favor of this calendar with Cartwright opposed.
