MEXICO – It took nearly 90 minutes Tuesday night for selectmen and Referendum Committee members to jump a secret-ballot hurdle of semantics.
By meeting’s end, however, consensus had been reached to start work on what the two groups met to discuss in the first place: to review the Australian ballot process and determine how best it could work in Mexico.
Formed at the Feb. 8 Board of Selectmen meeting, the committee is composed of eight members of the Mexico Taxpayers Association. Last fall, that group successfully gathered 400 signatures on a petition to change town meeting voting from a show of hands to secret ballots.
Getting selectmen to agree to draft a question and put it on the June town meeting warrant has been easier said than done, despite months of confusing wrangling.
Instead of a unified group Tuesday night, selectmen sat on one side of four tables arranged in one large rectangle; committee members sat opposite them.
After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance together, the meeting went into an us-against-them rehashing of possible wordings of the referendum question, not the complexities involved in changing 200 years of town-meeting style government.
Town Manager John Madigan handed out several different copies of reports from other towns that have made the switch, and their methods for getting there.
“This is a major change in how you do business. It’s got some serious implications,” Madigan said.
“Hopefully, we’ll learn from mistakes done by previous towns,” Board Chairman Barbara Laramee said.
Committee member Bonita Bouchard told the group, “I want to accomplish something. I don’t want to rehash everything … I don’t want it to be us against them.’ We’re all here to find out if it’s viable for the town of Mexico.”
But first, committee members sought from selectmen what the taxpayers’ group has wanted all along, an agreement by the board to draft a secret ballot referendum question, and place it before voters in June at town meeting.
“There’s no sense to go further if selectmen haven’t agreed it should go on the ballot,” committee member Betty Barrett argued.
“We can’t write the article tonight, that’s putting the cart before the horse,” Laramee countered.
When Madigan began detailing what the switch would cost, Barrett interrupted, saying, “I don’t want an inflated amount of money that this will cost.”
More arguments, raised voices and dissension followed within the committee.
Madigan continued, saying it could cost $3,900 more than current costs for balloting changes and information dissemination to the town’s 2,090 registered voters.
Both groups agreed to read Madigan’s research handouts and those from the committee, and meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 9, at the same place.
At their 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, meeting, selectmen are to vote for or against placing a secret-ballot referendum article on the town meeting warrant.
Tuesday night’s informal consensus by selectmen came out 4-1 in favor.
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