Last year our deputy town moderator was ignored by our elected officials even though he was elected as well.

I'd like to thank Claire Smith, our new town moderator, for bringing him to the table last night and announcing that he will be involved in town meeting.

We need to get our younger citizens involved in what is going on in town. By having Ben Donahue (no relation to the former moderator) play a more active role, he will get TM experience and be better prepared to take over should the moderator, for whatever reason, be unable to perform her duties.

I do see Wareham moving in the right direction.


Here is a copy of the article that appeared in the Courier last year. In my opinion, we are lucky to have this young man as our deputy moderator.

By Ruth Thompson
GateHouse News Service
Posted May 07, 2009 @ 04:32 PM
WAREHAM —


The desire to help has brought Benjamin Donahue to the forefront of town government. The Wareham native, who will graduate from Brown University in a few weeks with a double major in economics and history, was the sole candidate for the position of deputy moderator during lat month’s town elections.

“I just wanted to help out,” Donahue, who is not related to Town Moderator John Donahue, said. “I had heard that nobody else was going for it. I talked to my parents about the position and they were supportive. I grew up here and I know most of the issues. I said I could do that.”

Donahue was a write-in candidate and has been officially sworn in by Town Clerk Mary Ann Silva.

“I guess enough people thought it was a good idea,” he said of those who voted for him. No one had taken out papers for the position.

As someone who is considering attending law school, Donahue said the experience as deputy moderator would be an “obvious stepping stone” in that direction.

“I’m definitely interested in town government,” he said. “Town Meeting is our legislative body – how we make the law. There’s really no better way to get experience in law than helping to run the legislative body.”

Donahue said he enjoyed doing the research into Town Meeting that included reviewing a book written by the Massachusetts Moderators’ Association entitled Town Meeting Time.

“That’s what the majority of Massachusetts moderators use to conduct town meeting,” Town Moderator John Donahue said, “and that’s what I use for Wareham Town Meeting.”

“You basically need to know something about town government,” Ben Donahue said. “It’s not something you can just walk into. There are lots of formalities to this. It’s a big task.”

The idea of ever having to fill in for the town moderator isn’t daunting to Donahue.

“You’re not alone up there,” he said. “You have town counsel there to give the specifics of the law of the situation. I’d be essentially just leading the discussion. It would be a great opportunity.”

As for his opinion on Town Meeting so far, “it’s interesting,” Donahue said.

“I like the idea of a pure democracy,” he said. “It’s wonderful. It doesn’t get much better than that. But like any bureaucracy, there are issues that come about that destroy the efficiency of it. A lack of information often gets in the way. The key to democracy is an educated populace. Often, not everyone is as educated as they want to be or should be to vote on something.”
Donahue admits he himself is in that category.

“I’m well aware of the issues, and I still sometimes have no idea what they’re talking about,” he said, adding that the average citizen can’t be expected to be well acquainted with all 60 warrant articles.

As John Donahue and Town Clerk Silva have mentioned in the past, Ben Donahue spoke of the disappointing turn out for Town Meeting, a problem facing communities across the nation, not just Wareham.

“More people voted for American Idol than they did for the American president,” he said of people’s lack of desire to get involved with their community government.

He agreed that getting young people more involved in town government is key to a more defined democracy, and he praised the use of high school students as tellers in the current Town Meeting.

As for his own future in town government, he said he’d like to continue to help out.

“This is a three-year position,” he said. “I’d like to help in the position for as long as I can. I’d like to continue for as long as I can be of use to the town.”