In order to meet the needs of their residents, towns need to implement modern forms of municipal decision-making, despite the strong pull of tradition.  New England town meetings don’t need to disappear from the political landscape of Massachusetts, but they do need to be reformed to establish accountability.  More use should be made of representative town meetings or councils, which provide a stronger correlation between local legislative bodies and the people they represent.  The consistency of purpose, balanced representation of interests, and accountability of elected officials inherent in representative government better ensure that the people’s business can be conducted effectively, efficiently and in their broader interest with identifiable access and redress.

The open town meeting form of government is a powerful tradition in Metro Boston, but its inefficiencies and idiosyncrasies have the potential to impede progress, consistency of purpose, and responsive decision-making.  Special interest groups can disproportionately impact the outcomes of open town meetings through narrow, issue-oriented organizing, empowering various issue-oriented minorities at the expense of the majority.  The inconsistency and volatility of open town meeting impede a governing body’s responsibility to think, plan and act strategically with its focus on the long-range viability of the community (and its regional neighbors.)  Open town meeting can also effectively disenfranchise people who find it difficult to attend town meeting, such as the elderly, single-parent households, the parents of young children, or people with disabilities.

Representative town meeting also has its challenges.  The current model, which designates a number of elected delegates to represent a voting precinct (at typical ratios of 10 delegates per 1,000 to 2,000 residents), results in a cumbersome process as hundreds of representatives assemble at substantial taxpayer expense (Framingham, for example, has over 200 Town Meeting members.)  Even more important, each precinct of voters may have dozens of representatives, making it difficult for constituents to hold their (many) representatives accountable for decisions with which they disagree.

Most towns in the MAPC region have populations large enough and challenges complex enough to warrant the use of representative town meeting.  The many towns in the region that are still using open town meeting should strongly consider moving to a representative town meeting, through a Special Act or through revision of their charter.  In doing so, they would benefit from guidance regarding representation ratios that promote accountability  

2.a    More towns should adopt representative town meeting

2.b    MAPC and the UMass Collins Center should develop guidance for the implementation of representative town meeting

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