On Brookline

The recent announcement by our Town of its successful revision of its Web sites into a brand-spanking-new consolidated Web site brings to mind an excellent article in the Boston Globe’s Ideas section of June 3, 2007, titled “Can technology save the town meeting?” by Dave Dennison of Arlington, MA.  Dave has “an expanded and annotated (’expannotated’) version” at his Web site (click to read).

Dave points out:

“New Englanders have long complained that the traditional town meeting is unsuited to the demands of modern-day work and family life.  Just as common is the charge that an unrepresentative group of insiders ends up manipulating the process.”

Instead of changing to a city form of governance because of problems with town meetings (both open and representative), as Braintree and other MA municipalities have done in recent years, or dispensing “with the town meeting and put[ting] major questions on the townwide ballot” as some New Hampshire and Maine towns have done in recent years, Dave poses a third option:

“Could modern networking technologies reconnect larger groups of people to their local governments?  What if there were a way to preserve the deliberative aspects of the town meeting – still stoutly defended by conservatives and progressives alike – without requiring busy, work-stressed residents to assemble at the same time and place?”

This might take the form of “an electronic town meeting – an online deliberation, guided by a moderator, in which participants don’t leave the comforts of home.  [Or:]  By the same token, large meetings in an auditorium can use wireless communications to more efficiently distribute information, collect opinion, and record a collective decision.”

Does Brookline possess the required technology for its Representative Town Meeting (RTM)?  Navigate the Town’s new Web site and judge for yourself.  (Hopefully the new Web site doesn’t have an electronic Muddy River to contend with.)  This may be manageable for 240 Town Meeting Members (TMMs), provided the Open Meeting and Public Records Laws can be complied with for electronic town meetings.

Just imagine, however, the expansiveness of the Internet and the progression of its technologies in just a few short years and consider whether Brookline might revert to open town meeting via cyberspace.  Granted, with Brookline’s 55,000+ residents, there might be around 30,000 voters to be accommodated.  With the small voter turnout at TMM elections in recent years, those elected, and re-elected, may not represent the cream of Brookline exceptionalism.  Surely this open electronic concept would be more democratic than RTM has become in Brookline since its adoption in 1915 – ninety-three years ago! – over which time Brookline’s population and especially its budgets have increased significantly.

I urge readers of this series to review Dave’s article with care.  Perhaps there is an alternative to Brookline’s RTM as presently conducted that is better suited to address the financial and other critical issues Brookline faces.  Brookline voters should ask themselves:  “Am I happy with the way our Selectmen and TMMs have run Brookline in the past several years?” when they pay their property, water/sewer, refuse, override and other tax bills and consider Town services no longer provided.  With some changes, perhaps the cream might once again rise to the top in Brookline.

(Subsequent installment will focus on problems with TMMs and RTM.)