Grafton has no easy answers on how to handle Town Meeting
It’s going to be the most complicated and unprecedented Town Meeting in Grafton’s history, and every option has its drawback.
Postpone Town Meeting until July, when the state may have more guidelines on how to handle a large open meeting without potentially exposing voters to COVID-19? That puts it after the June 23 Town Election — and with Town Moderator Ray Mead not seeking re-election, that leaves either Bruce Spinney or Daniel Concaugh at the podium, without Mead’s 20 years of experience.
Hold it on June 20 on the Grafton High School football field, which could host about 1,250 but require chair rental, a Jumbotron, possibly a tent to shield voters from the sun and likely a lineup of portapotties? There would need to be a rain date, crowd control would be an issue and such an arrangement may harm the artificial turf.
Put together a socially distanced meeting involving the auditorium, cafeteria and gym at Grafton High School, the counterparts next door at Grafton Middle School, an FM broadcast for people listening in their cars parked outside and, potentially, a single drive-through vote? The parking lot audience would only be able to vote on a single article on a 40-item warrant, possibly making the entire meeting invalid.
“My proposal is to just have Town Meeting and make it safe,” said Mead, whose two-decade stint as moderator was only briefly broken in the late 2000’s when Roger Trahan took up the gavel. ““I’ve been thinking about this, thinking about how to get it done.”
While Massachusetts is slowly starting to reopen business and government services as COVID-19 cases slow down, there are really no guidelines on how to hold Town Meeting, a legislative body open to every registered voter in town filled with lengthy debates. Town Meeting is the final decision-maker on the town budget, on capital spending, and this year the controversial topics include the proposed Super Park (and proposed alternatives for spending the CPC funds set aside for it), an expansion of marijuana licenses, and two sets of town budgets — one that includes a Proposition 2 1/2 override (the subject of a ballot vote on June 23), and a contingency budget if it fails to pass.
Meeting with the Select Board Tuesday night, Mead suggested the dual-school, drive-by voting option, which was inspired by a recent Town Meeting in Hopkinton, N.H. That meeting, however, had only a single item on the warrant. Grafton’s has around 40.
A ballot vote listing every article is not allowed. Neither is capping the number of people allowed at the meeting. Checking in voters is a logistical challenge involving temperature readings. And there’s the concern that people will be driven away by the prospect of catching COVID-19 — and the likelihood that someone in the crowd may be an asymptomatic spreader.
“There is no easy solution here. The only easy solution is to postpone Town Meeting, and that’s not going to happen this year,” Mead said. “This has changed the world, and we need to adapt.”
Select Board member Donna Stock said she was concerned about the timeline — getting word out to voters about how Town Meeting will be handled will be difficult (and Town Administrator Tim McInerney said recent inaccuracies in stories that most certainly did not appear on Grafton Common made it hard to trust media reporting). Select Board member Doreen DeFazio at first suggested postponing Town Meeting until July 18 but backtracked when Mead reminded the board that, as moderator, he has the authority to reschedule it at any time.
The board agreed to set up a committee including Mead, McInerney, DeFazio, Assistant Town Administrator Rebecca Meekins and Town Clerk Kandy Lavallee to research the issue further. Mead also requested that moderator candidates Spinney and Concaugh be added.
“They’re going to be jumping right into the frying pan,” Mead said.
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