Town Meetings Lauded By Some, Lamented By Others | Local News

From the Hartford Courant

Town Meetings Lauded By Some, Lamented By Others

By MARK SPENCER, Courant Staff Writer

May 9, 2008

Partisans of the town meeting form of government cherish it as a centuries-old tradition that is as New England as clam chowder and as sacred as democracy itself.

But supporters of the town manager-elected council form of government, who see that approach as a wellspring of good, efficient government, describe the town meeting as outmoded and dysfunctional. They say the Yankee aversion to change has prevented towns from adopting modern forms of government prevalent in the rest of the country, hobbling them as they face increasingly complex challenges.

The divide is no more evident than at this time of year, when thousands of residents in more than 100 towns in the state decide the fate of local budgets. In the coming weeks at town meetings across the state, cantankerous codgers will sit beside well-scrubbed, earnest young parents in school auditoriums and meeting halls to shout yes or no, influencing the next local tax bill that arrives in their mailboxes and the services they get from their towns and schools.

Paul Fetherston is relieved that he will not be around to see it. He recently left his job as Canton's chief administrative officer, frustrated at what he sees as an inability to get things done in local government.

"The Northeast is known nationally for its reluctance to change at the municipal level," said Fetherston, who also has been town manager in Newington and worked in East Hartford and Simsbury.

Fetherston was raised in Connecticut and says he loves it here, but he is leaving the state to become a deputy city manager in Boulder, Colo., where he expects to find what he views as a more progressive way of governing.

Although some towns only use the town meeting for big decisions, such as the budget, others, including Canton, rely on it for even minor matters, such as approving all ordinances or accepting grants of more than $100,000.

Low attendance at town meetings leaves decisions on increasingly complex issues in the hands of a few, opponents say. They argue that such matters are better left in the hands of trained professionals and an elected council.

"We have a disconnected public that doesn't know the issues and doesn't have time to know the issues," Fetherston said. "There has to be a reason to elect people. If you don't like the decisions they make, you can vote them out of office."

But Frank M. Bryan, a political science professor at the University of Vermont, is an enthusiastic supporter of town meetings. He calls them "the schoolhouse of democracy," in which every citizen is a legislator. He said the dialogue in town meetings educates people and leads to enlightened decisions.

"The people assembled usually bring out the arguments for and against something and give it a good airing," Bryan said.

When it comes to Connecticut Yankees, you can't beat Sam Humphrey. At 85, it doesn't take much prodding for him to tell you his family goes back eight generations in Canton. "It's only here in New England where individuals have the right to decide things," Humphrey said. "That's a privilege that is as close as you can get to a true democracy."

Home rule in Connecticut allows towns to determine the form of government they use, and that has led to a hodgepodge of approaches. The town meeting is the ultimate authority on at least some decisions in the 106 of the state's 169 municipalities that have elected boards of selectmen, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

Under a manager-council government, the manager prepares the budget for council review and approval. Berlin eliminated town meetings in favor of a manager and council in 1994, although it still has budget referendums.

"People were not inclined to come out," said Fred Jortner, who was an elected official in Berlin before and after the change. "There were a handful of people controlling town finances."

Berlin proved that even reserved New Englanders can change their ways. The controversial switch to a town manager was initially approved by a 55-vote margin. Four years later, a referendum to switch back to the town meeting was defeated by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Bonnie Therrien, town manager in Berlin before taking the same job in Wethersfield, said administrators who come from out of state often don't last long when confronted with a system they see as antiquated and cumbersome.

"It just drives them crazy," she said.

The situation is particularly acute when it comes to budgets, which administrators spend months developing with their staffs and elected boards. Even in the smallest of towns, spending plans run into the millions these days. Residents who vote at a town meeting may or may not understand the budget.

Berlin's town manager, Roger Kemp, who worked in California and New Jersey, said he had never heard of a town meeting before coming to Connecticut.

"People always vote no because they can," he said. "People vote their wallets."

In a nod to the limits of the town meeting and decreasing participation, towns are increasingly holding referendums on their budgets.

For managers, that has its own problems. Some towns hold automatic referendums after the town meeting; others require residents to petition for one. Some set a limit on the number that can be held; others allow as many as it takes to win approval.

Michael E. Morrell, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, said the trend is away from town meetings and toward referendums to vote on budgets. He cited statistics from the state Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations that showed the number of budget town meetings decreased from 60 in 2004 to 50 last year. The number of referendums increased from 62 in 2004 to 73 in 2007.

Town officials are watching to see whether it's even more difficult this year. Budgets in Berlin, Plainville and Farmington have already been defeated in referendums.

Jortner, who served on the Berlin council, acknowledged that elected officials face pressure to keep taxes low, but said they have the long-term best interests of the town at heart.

Tim Tieperman came from Pennsylvania to become town manager in Tolland. The town initially did not have automatic referendums, but that changed several years after he arrived.

"It was a marathon of budget referendums before it got passed," he said. "That is when I said, 'This is enough.'"

He left and is now a city manager in his home state.

Bryan, who also teaches public administration courses, empathizes with the frustration town managers have with town meetings — to a point.

"It's a pain in the ass," he said. "Democracy is, and always will be."

Gene Chamberlain recently moved with his family from a suburb of Chicago to Farmington, where last month he spoke at his first budget town meeting. When he learned of the system, he said, he thought it was crazy.

"If you elect people for an office, you are essentially saying you trust that group to do what is best for the town," he said.

Humphrey, of Canton, started attending town meetings with his father at age 8 and estimates that he has been to about 250, despite being out of town for 23 years while he was in the Air Force. Anyone who wants to mess with his town meetings is looking for a fight.

He said he has never seen a town meeting make a bad decision, and he dismisses professional town administrators who say the time for them has passed.

"It's outmoded because it's a nuisance to them," Humphrey said. "They want to be dictators."

Contact Mark Spencer at mspencer@courant.com.