Radical proposal to change Sterling's government must be stopped

The frustrations that have been building in Sterling over the last year towards the Board of Selectmen and their tone-deaf performance in relation to a number of issues is coming to a head. At Monday's special town meeting, a citizen petition will be voted that could significantly change the way Sterling has done business for the last 120 years.

The radical article is Article Three, which would strip the Selectmen of the power to make any decisions on behalf of the town if presented with a matter of any significance. It would cripple the town’s ability to make any decisions quickly, since any significant item would have to be brought before the town for a vote. It would relegate the position of Selectman to little more than a glorified reporter posting updates on a website or a talk-show host facilitating open forums.

It must be defeated.

Here is the current succinct, 26-word definition of the duties of the Selectmen from the town bylaws:

Section 1. The Selectmen shall exercise a general supervision over all matters affecting the interest or welfare of the town, not otherwise provided for.

This definition has not changed since it was approved in 1889. It has worked for 120 years. And now, because of a Select Board that has been unresponsive, secretive and has generally had a really, really bad year, a group of townspeople are looking to completely overreact and saddle us with this 267-word jumble of unenforceable conditions:

Section 1. The Selectmen shall exercise a general supervision over all matters affecting the interest or welfare of the town, not otherwise provided for, and shall (a) remain well-informed about all such matters; and (b) keep the citizens and officials of the Town of Sterling timely and well-informed as well. However, insofar as any such matters will have, or could reasonably be expected to have, a fairly major or significant impact on the Town of Sterling from any perspective-be it financial, environmental, or otherwise- the Selectmen shall (c) advise the citizens of Sterling promptly on learning of the matter; (d) keep the citizens of Sterling timely and well-informed of such matters, as and when information becomes available; and (e) refrain from entering into any agreements and/or commitments without the citizens of Sterling as a whole having first rendered an informed vote with respect to any such agreements and commitments. With respect to all matters of such importance and significance to the Town of Sterling, the Selectmen’s obligations pursuant to subparagraph (d) above shall, at a minimum, require regular, up-to-date and informative postings on the Town of Sterling website, and Open Sessions where the Selectmen present the latest information and respond to all inquiries made by Sterling’s citizens. However, this is not intended to require the Selectmen to disclose information that they are not entitled to disclose as a matter of law, nor limit their right to withhold specific information to the extent, but only to the extent that such information qualifies, under the particular circumstances, for a legal exemption from disclosure under Massachusetts law and if it is in the best interests of the people of Sterling that the Selectmen exercise that exemption.

Before I break down all of the problems with the proposed new law, let me make this entirely clear: the Board of Selectmen have been ineffective responding to the issues of the last year or so. They appear to have violated the open meeting law by secretly discussing the Wekepeke with Nestle; they refused to take a position on the Wekepeke question until September, four months after Clinton rejected the plan; they dumped members of the Council on Aging and Personnel Board after the start of the fiscal year and did not communicate with the removed members; they are not proactive in informing citizens of the reasons for their actions, and do not educate the town on the actions they hope to take.

In short, they’ve been doing a poor job.

But the answer is not to break a system that has worked since the 19th century, it is to vote out the Selectmen who are not doing their jobs. There is an election every year, and we keep sending the same guys back to town hall. Someday, we will have a Board of Selectmen that we can trust, and when that happens, it would be a disaster if they were hamstrung by this suffocating bylaw.

Let’s go line-by line and review the problems with this proposal:

Section 1. The Selectmen shall exercise a general supervision over all matters affecting the interest or welfare of the town, not otherwise provided for, and shall

(a) remain well-informed about all such matters; and

How is this enforceable? Who determines what level of knowledge must be reached for someone to be “well-informed”? What is the remedy if a Selectman is deemed to be not “well-informed”?

(b) keep the citizens and officials of the Town of Sterling timely and well-informed as well.

I think this means to suggest that the citizens and officials must be well informed in a timely fashion. (As it reads, it suggests that the Selectmen must keep citizens and officials “timely,” which really isn’t fair since I’m often late for things and I’d hate for my Selectmen to be punished because I forgot to set my alarm…but I digress). Again, what is meant by “timely” and what is the “well-informed”? Not to mention that to “keep the citizens and officials” in line with anything is an impossible standard. Perhaps if the clause required the Selectmen to “inform the citizens…” it would make a little more sense, but the way it’s written the Selectmen are responsible for the citizens’ level of information and that is an impossible standard.

However, insofar as any such matters will have, or could reasonably be expected to have, a fairly major or significant impact on the Town of Sterling from any perspective-be it financial, environmental, or otherwise- the Selectmen shall

This paragraph is startling in its breadth and scope. It does not define what matters meet the standard of “fairly major or significant impact on the Town of Sterling.” However, it does say that it could include matters “from any perspective.” Think about that. From any single citizen’s perspective, a failure to plow a street on time or a fix a street light that has gone out could have a significant impact. According to the breadth of this clause, such an event could trigger the following:

(c) advise the citizens of Sterling promptly on learning of the matter;

(d) keep the citizens of Sterling timely and well-informed of such matters, as and when information becomes available; and

(e) refrain from entering into any agreements and/or commitments without the citizens of Sterling as a whole having first rendered an informed vote with respect to any such agreements and commitments.

The article then goes on to describe how the Selectmen may keep citizens informed.

To take a literal reading of this portion of the proposed bylaw if someone has an event that would have a fairly major impact from any perspective, the Selectmen must inform the town, keep the citizens informed as changes warrant, and “refrain from entering any…commitments” that might fix the problem until town meeting is convened to debate and vote on the item. Grinding the gears of government to a halt while the town either waits for town meeting or convenes meeting upon meeting upon meeting to decide governmental matters will render town government impotent.

Keeping the town informed is a good thing, and Lord knows the current Board of Selectmen doesn’t seem to find that to be a particularly important part of what they are doing. But again, the remedy is to vote in people who will commit to keeping the town informed and vote out those who do not take that responsibility seriously.

Kicking the crutches out from under the Board of Selectmen does more than incapacitate the board, it cripples the entire town. Tuning the Board of Selectmen into an essentially ceremonial post may punish the current officeholders, but it will punish the other 7,997 of us as well.

Tags: Massachusetts Town Meeting Sterling