Goodbye, Amherst Town Meeting – you have finally alienated my affection. You have proven to be as antiquated and dysfunctional as the school buildings you have refused to replace.
I am familiar with Town Meeting governance, having been raised in a Massachusetts town of 3,500 with voice and vote open to all citizens.
Amherst is no small town where we know and interact daily with neighbors. Amherst is a proudly diverse community with multiple constituencies and factions; the only way its governance can be representative is if its elected officials are chosen by a majority of registered voters and are held accountable for the actions they take in the public interest.
At present, the town’s executive and budgetary power is vested in individuals who are self-nominated and who are not required to articulate reasons for the privilege of representing fellow citizens. Often we vote for names and addresses in our precinct with no further information.
This is no way to run a government that is responsive to public opinion, attentive to constituents, and truly held accountable for reasoned argument and votes recorded.
We can, we must, do better. The Charter Commission has much work ahead of it. Goodbye, Town Meeting.
Dale Peterson
Amherst
