Moderator considers bylaw to encourage meeting attendance

UPDATED, Feb. 4: Overall, Arlington Town Meeting members come regularly to Town Hall sessions. A review of attendance records kept by the clerk’s office from 2012 through 2014 shows that members are present for sessions almost 85 percent of the time.

Yet some members’ attendance is far from stellar, leading the moderator to consider what steps can be taken improve matters. Town Meeting in Arlington, operating since 1807, has no law to address no-shows.

OPINION: Absent without voters’ leave

The town election is two months away, but who will be on the ballot is being determined now. In the light of this, YourArlington took a closer look at the attendance records of Town Meeting members up for reelection in 2015.

A check of the 83 Town Meeting members whose terms are up in 2015 provides insight about which members come and which do not.

On the one hand, 31 whose seats are up this year had perfect records between 2012 and 2014. Of the 83 individuals up for reelection this year, 52 have less than perfect attendance. The following stand out for lack attendance. Each who responded to a request for comment has reasons:

— William A. Carey Jr. of Precinct 2 has not attended one session since 2010;

— Robert E. Herlihy of Precinct 9, attended no sessions in 2013 and ’14;

— Michael R. Costa of Precinct 4 made it to one session out of 20 in the three-year period;

— Patricia A. Costa of Precinct 4 attended eight of 20 in the period and only one in 2014;

— John W. Canniff of Precinct 18 attended two of 20 during the period.

Explanations provided

Called at home on Sunday, Jan. 18, Carey, a former longtime School Committee member, was asked what has kept him from sessions for nearly five years.

“Bad back,” he said.”

Asked why he had returned reelection papers in the light of his attendance, he said he “hoped to get back in there.”

Carey called back the next day to say a number of health issues had restricted his attendance. He said he had joined Town Meeting in the 1960s and said he never missed a meeting during 21 years on the School Committee. “I hope to be back on my feet,” he said, referring to this spring’s meeting. He last served on the School Committee in 2001.

Herlihy, who said he had been a Town Meeting member for “20 to 25 years,” said he had missed 14 of 20 sessions between 2012 and 2014 because his wife was ill and subsequently died during that time. With such life-changing events, he said, “your priorities get changed around.” He said he is seeking reelection because he plans to attend this spring.

A message was left for Michael Costa Jan. 18 seeking comment. A subsequent call was made Jan. 22 asking for comment from Michael and Patricia. Neither has called back. Clerk records show both have returned reelection papers for their seats.

YourArlington reached Shirley Canniff, also a Precinct 18 meeting member, on Jan. 18 and left a number for John Canniff to call if he wished. She said he had moved; was working nights, preventing his attendance; and is not seeking reelection. For her part, Shirley said she “thoroughly enjoyed every minute” of Town Meeting.

Precinct 19 member Daniel Farrell, who did not attend sessions in 2013 and ’14, resigned in December. His seat would have been up in 2016.

What moderator proposes

Town Meeting Moderator John D. Leone is aware of the no-show issue, one that is easier to track after Town Meeting began electronic voting in 2014.

He plans to ask for a resolution to gauge the appetite of the meeting and the town for a bylaw or amendment to the Town Manager Act, if necessary. That act sets out the structure of town government.

YourArlington asked Leone what he proposes, and on Tuesday, Jan. 20, he suggested that the meeting may wish to craft a bylaw incorporating these points:

— If a member attends 25 percent of the meetings or fewer in a given year of a three-year term, then:

1.) The town clerk would automatically declare the seat vacant and drop him or her from the member roll, and the seat would be open at the next election; and/or

2.) The meeting would vote to declare the seat vacant during the last night of the meeting and drop him or her from the member roll and the seat would be open at the next election.

Before putting the resolution on the warrant, Leone has requested that Town Counsel Doug Heim ask the state attorney general whether such a bylaw would be legal.

If Town Meeting would approve Leone’s 25-percent proposal, here is how that plan might play out: Of all members, 10 missed 75 percent or more of the meetings in 2014. There are 101 members in Town Meeting now with perfect attendance, and 137 who had perfect attendance in 2014.

Reviewed Framingham, Reading provisions

Leone said he reviewed provisions about attendance followed by Town Meetings in Reading and Framingham. Like Arlington, both are representative Town Meetings.

Under Reading’s attendance bylaw, the last article on the warrant for the annual meeting lists all those who attended fewer than half of the sessions for the previous year and calls for their removal.

Per the bylaw, the precinct meetings are asked to discuss the situation and make a recommendation to Town Meeting about members from their precincts included on the “removal” list. These individuals have a chance to speak up at Town Meeting in their defense.

“In practice, anyone who is recommended for removal by the precinct has been removed,” he wrote in an email Jan. 16. “Anyone who puts up even the weakest defense is spared.”

In Framingham, he wrote, the special act that created the Board of Selectmen/Town Manager form of government in that large town allowed for declaring a Town Meeting position vacant if the person holding the seat did not attend 1 percent of the meetings in a calendar year.

At the last annual meeting, this percentage was changed to 25 percent. As a result, the town clerk notified 39 of the current 216 Town Meeting members that they could lose their seats as of Jan. 1. The MetroWest Daily News reported Jan. 7 that occurred to 29 members because they attended fewer than four of Town Meeting’s 14 sessions in 2014. That created vacancies in time for candidates to run in the April election.

Meeting vacancies as Jan. 20

The following are current Town Meeting vacancies, based on the clerk’s record received Jan. 20 (this would change depending on who returns papers):

Precinct 1: One two-year term;

Precinct 6: Two: one three-year term, as Eric Berger, whose seat was up in 2015, moved, as well as one two-year term;

Precinct 11: One one-year term;

Precinct 12: One one-year term;

Precinct 17: Lisa A. Pedulla, whose term expires this year, returned papers, moved to Precinct 7, creating a vacant three-year seat in Precinct 17;

Precinct 18: John W. Canniff, whose term expires this year, has moved, according to Shirley Canniff, which means there’s a current open seat;

Precinct 19: A one-year term is vacant following the resignation of Daniel Farrell. 

Deadlines for candidates

* Friday, Jan. 30, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for Town Meeting members who are candidates for reelection to give written notice about this to the clerk.

* Nomination papers must be taken out papers by 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5.

* Saturday, Feb. 7, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for submitting all nomination papers with the registrar of voters for the certification of signatures.

* Saturday, Feb. 21, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for filing nomination papers with the town clerk (these papers must have been filed at least 14 days previously with Registrars of Voters for certification of signatures).

* Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for filing withdrawals of and/or objections to all nomination papers with the town clerk.

The town election is Saturday, March 28.

The April meeting will be Arlington’s 208th annual. The first, in 1807, was an open Town Meeting. It will be the 90th as a representative Town Meeting, held first in 1925, according to the town’s annual report that year. [The date originally reported was 1937.]

This story was published Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. It was updated Jan. 26 to clarify the 25-percent standard the moderator seeks as well as the implication of that standard. Updated Jan. 30 to add opinion link as well as clarifying language. Updated Feb. 4 to correct some Town Meeting history. Wes Beal of Arlington helped with the collection and arrangement of information.

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              TOWN MEETING ATTENDANCE, 2012 through 2014 (source: town clerk records)