Charter Forum on Feb. 6
The Brattleboro Charter Revision Commission wants to hear from you! Join us for a discussion on the form of Brattleboro's annual town meeting.
Date: Thursday, February 6, 2025
Time: 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., Brattleboro
The discussion will be broadcast live on BCTV Channel 1079 and on BCTV's Facebook Page, YouTube Channel, and website.
Background
Brattleboro’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is considering whether to recommend a change in the form of Brattleboro’s annual Town Meeting. The CRC is seeking broad public input before deciding what to recommend. Whatever the CRC recommends later this year will be subject to approval by either Representative Town Meeting (RTM) or a Townwide vote, and then further subject to approval by the State Legislature and the Governor in 2026.
The CRC is considering this change because Brattleboro is the only town in Vermont that has an RTM and for the past decade (or more) residents have expressed many complaints about RTM. One alternative is to make some changes to RTM, but a simpler solution may be to switch to Open Town Meeting (OTM), which is the standard form of Town Meeting established by Vermont law and is the system in place for most Vermont towns.
In Representative Town Meeting, registered voters in each of three districts elect peers to serve as their district’s representatives and only the elected representatives are allowed to vote at Town Meeting. This ensures geographic balance in the distribution of Town Meeting participants. It also is intended to promote a seriousness and diligence on the part of the elected RTM members who have the privilege of representing their fellow residents in approving the Town’s annual budget and making other significant Town governance decisions. There has been active and ongoing debate in Brattleboro about whether the limited access of RTM actually results in a level of seriousness and diligence greater than OTM participation in other towns. Also, for the past decade or more, there have rarely been more candidates than available RTM seats. This results either in a de facto OTM (where all who want to participate are able to participate) or in some registered voters being “caucused in” as representatives by a vote of only the existing RTM members, not by a vote of all the registered voters.
In Open Town Meeting, any registered voter may participate and vote at Town Meeting. There is no in-between step of voters electing district representatives. This enables broader participation and avoids the concerns related to the process of “caucusing in” to fill vacant seats, but it also eliminates the assurance of balanced geographical distribution of Town Meeting participants. Some people have expressed concern that OTM also allows groups of people who are interested in one or two particular matters (rather than being more broadly interested in overall Town governance) to “pack” a Town Meeting with organized support for those limited matters.
There is a third option: Australian Ballot. In that system, some or all “Town Meeting” decisions are made by paper ballot and any registered voter may vote. The CRC is considering this alternative, too, but is focusing primarily on RTM+OTM because they involve discussion, engagement, and collaboration among the voters and the potential of amendments. When deciding matters by Australian Ballot, there sometimes (not always) is an informational meeting prior to the vote, but not all voters are required to participate in or even observe the pre-vote discussion. All questions to be voted on that ballot have been determined in advance.
The CRC asks all interested Brattleboro residents to please express your thoughts and preferences for Brattleboro’s Town Meeting system at a meeting at Brooks Memorial Library on February 6 at 6 p.m. For people who want to watch but not participate, that meeting will be broadcast live on BCTV Channel 1079, and on BCTV’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, and website.
Following the meeting and continuing into March, the CRC will be seeking additional public input via an online survey. Other ways to express your opinion to the CRC are by email addressed to [email protected] and/or by attending future CRC meetings. The CRC generally meets on the first and third Thursday of each month at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room and on Zoom. Please confirm the date, time, location, and agenda for any particular meeting by visiting the CRC’s webpage at https://brattleboro.gov/charter-commission.
Members from the Charter Revision Commission were on a recent episode of Vermontitude to discuss their work to date, their visit with the Selectboard on Dec. 3, and what's ahead in 2025.
In addition to the forum planned for Feb. 6, you can join the conversation by taking part in the Commission's meetings. Meeting materials are posted on the calendar and the Commission's webpage.