- Begun at 20:37.
- BOS recommended no action.
- Ms. LaCourt said the BOS was strongly against creating at-large TMMs.
- Mr. Schlichtman submitted a substitute motion to make the members of the BOS, SchoolComm, the Treasurer, the FinComm chair, the Moderator, and state legislators who reside in Arlington all at-large TMMs. He said the motion is counter-intuitive and would not dilute the votes of TMMs. He said it would open up more Town Meeting seats to ordinary citizens and would increase citizen involvement. He said it would be good for Mr. Marzilli and Mr. Havern to have a say at Town Meeting.
- Mr. Tully said that if things were not broken, why fix them. He said the people in question already have plenty of authority from their town-wide offices, so why give them more. He said the change will not increase involvement though it will centralize authority. He noted that Mr. Havern and Mr. Marzilli would have no problem getting to speak before Town Meeting should they desire to do so.
- Mr. Dunn noted that our Representative Town Meeting form of government descended from the Open form, where any registered voter can vote and so is very egalitarian. He said that while we do have a representative form now, we’re still egalitarian in the sense that every TMM had to go through the same process to become a TMM, and that we should keep it that way.
- Mr. Carreiro (less coherently than he would have liked) said he agreed with the previous two speakers, pointed out that if a precinct did not like town-wide office holders doubling-up as TMMs it could vote them out, pointed out that if a town-wide office holder wanted to open things up, he could simply not run for TMM, and asserted that there is no reason why being, for example, a member of SchoolComm should automatically make on a TMM.
- Mr. Leone moved the previous question. Debate terminated.
- Schlichtman substitute motion defeated.
- BOS recommendation of no action approved at 20:48.
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