Editorial –  Annual Town Meeting

Historical Crowd Overwhelms Building Capacity Forcing TM Shutdown

There was a time when the Westford town moderator, along with the Select Board would express concern over the lack of attendance at town meeting.  Not any more.   Nothing like banning guns or raising taxes to get everyone’s attention. On Saturday, over 1600 town residents assembled at Westford Academy (WA) on a cold, rainy and wintry morning to do political battle at annual town meeting over a proposed massive proposition 2 ½ override.  They were abruptly told that they must “stand-down” and wait until May for the final showdown on the issue.   Despite intermittent boos and grumbles, the crowd took the news in an orderly manner and respectfully filed out of the building, while returning their vote clickers.   This says a lot for Westford.  Imagine if this happened in Brockton.

The size of the crowd overwhelmed the physical capacity of WA to accommodate residents, forcing a cancellation of the spring town meeting.  The historical cancellation was due in part to the fact that the crowd capacity exceeded limits set by state and local fire codes for the building.  There was also a legal issue as to whether the town could face court action, if it denied entrance to a town voter, who wanted to participate in “open” town meeting.   A once theoretical question was answered today.  Yes.

This is now the second instance in succession, where a volatile issue has resulted in an unprecedented turnout of Westford voters wanting to participate in open town meeting. For Westford this is a truly revolutionary development.  Times are obviously changing.  Increasing pressures and concerns related to the economy, education and public safety are driving people out to these meetings. Many attendees were dissatisfied with the postponement, offering comments that open town meeting has seen its day.

Town committees have looked at various options over the years ranging from remote electronic participation to representative town government.  Up until now, there has been resistance to any changes, but there is no doubt that concerns are not going away.  Today’s debacle demonstrated that on the issue of this critical override, in which significant numbers of people wanted to be heard, the status quo governing the legislative function of the town was inadequate.  It resulted in a significant loss of town funds, people’s time, a delayed fiscal decision on a critical issue and a lot of frustration.

Prior to dismissal, Moderator Angela Harkness announced that the town meeting would be postponed until Saturday May 4th 2024 at the Westford Academy football field.  The time was not provided.