An observant friend sent this along to me..

I want to call your attention to a number of errors contained in the “Town Meeting Dates” available on the town Website

http://www.wareham.ma.us/Public_Documen … 5-000F8513

as well the Town Meeting dates that were passed at the July 27, 2010, Board of Selectmen meeting as documented at

http://takebackwareham86bos.blogspot.co … 72710.html

(Part 6  -  from 10:34 to 18:16) ....(Clip below)


The second entry gives August 20, 2010, as the “last day to post in at least one public place in each precinct…”  The BOS are certainly free to see that this notice is posted on or before this date.  However, the date required by the description given in the document is that required by our By-Laws (Div. I, Art. I, Sec. 3.).  That date is Saturday, September 4, 2010.  A careful description that distinguishes between the date required by our By-Laws and the date required of our Town Administrator by the BOS would be helpful to everyone involved.

The third entry gives the last day to submit Warrant petitions as September 3, 2010.  The Wareham Home Rule Charter (Section 2-4 (c)) states that

“The board of selectmen shall place  on the warrant for the spring and fall town meetings all subjects which have been submitted to it, in accordance with the provisions of this article, forty-five days, or more, before the date, fixed by-law, on which such meetings are scheduled to convene.”

This does NOT mean that the last day to submit petitions is 45 days or more before town meeting.  It means that the BOS must accept all submissions up to and including 45 days before town meeting.  This means that the last day to submit petitions is 45 days prior to town meeting, which is September 10, 2010.

I also wish to note that this requirement is not at the convenience of the Town Clerk, the Town Administrator, the Board of Selectmen, or anyone else.  It is a requirement of our Charter.  The failure of the Selectmen to follow such a requirement is a violation of their oath of office.

The seventh entry gives September 23, 2010, as the last day to publish the entire Warrant in a local newspaper.  The BOS is certainly free to see that this publication is made on or before that date.  However, the date required by the description is found in our Charter (Section 2-4 (d)).  The correct date is October 11, 2010.  A careful description that distinguishes between the date required by our Charter and the date required of our Town Administrator by the BOS would be helpful to everyone involved.

There is a formatting error in the online document for the entry for the last day to submit petitions.  In particular, the word “Last” in the third entry is not properly lined up in the second column.

There are additional problems that need to be addressed by additions and changes to our By-Laws and Charter.  I respectfully would like to request that the BOS submit these changes in order to avoid continued ambiguity and confusion in the future:

The means of calculating the date by which the BOS establishes all dates for the completion of a Warrant for each town meeting needs to be specified.

The required publication of the Warrant in a local newspaper originated before there was an Internet.  Although I’m not suggesting this requirement be abandoned just yet, I would like to see the submitted Warrant Articles immediately put up on the town site when they are received.  This should be a trivial matter for submissions in machine readable format.  The goal here is to maximize the time voters have to study the submitted warrant articles.

The official closing of the Warrant should clearly be defined and differentiated from the last submission date.  The means of calculating the closing date should be specified (probably the first Tuesday after the last day of submission).

The Charter (Section 2-4 (C)) bases the Warrant article submission date on the convening of the Town Meeting rather than the General Business Portion of that meeting.  (This is only a problem at the Annual Town Meeting.)  The town has routinely made errors in the town meeting related dates as a result.  Clarification by changing the Charter will eliminate this confusion.

TBW
P-SPAN