Election day is almost here, and it has me reflecting on why I started this website. Earlier this year, when I was trying to follow the budget debacle, I found myself struggling. I’d see a notice about a budget-related meeting (purely by chance), I’d show up, and I’d find myself disappointed in any number of ways. Sometimes, the meeting was just a perfunctory vote to move the process along with no real discussion. Other times, a very small group of people would be there to ask about something specific — tree trimming seemed to come up a lot, but also the schools. But those people were usually already too late…
The budget process starts much earlier in the year, usually at Board of Finance (BOF) meetings. After the first failed referendum, members of the BOF who showed up to the later-stage meetings would urge people to attend their meetings earlier to have a bigger impact on the budget. It’s a fair point — by the time a budget is being presented for a vote, it’s too late for feedback (at least until after the votes are tallied). Still, I had to chuckle. It’s nearly impossible for the average person to know what’s going on and when.
The only board I’ve found — so far, anyway — that posts a schedule of its meetings well in advance is the Board of Education. If you want to know when the next Board of Selectmen (BOS), BOF, or another board or commission might meet, you have to go to its webpage. The BOS page says, “The Board of Selectmen holds monthly meetings on the first Wednesdays of each month at 6:00pm in Warren Memorial Town Hall (1 Main Street), unless otherwise posted.” But if you look at the Agendas & Minutes page, you’ll see there is often more than one meeting a month, and the last meeting (as of this writing) was on a Thursday morning at 9 a.m. You won’t actually know when a meeting will happen until, usually, the day before when the agenda must be published.
The BOF doesn’t have any information about its meeting schedule and often goes months without meeting at all. So good luck predicting when one will happen. This is representative of many of the boards — though the Planning and Zoning Committee is pretty predictable. Most of the people on these boards are unpaid, and some of them undergo training and certifications most of us would never find the time for. So, this isn’t a criticism of them — it’s of a failing system.
During a different time, people did not have to try and track this information down. Concerned citizens could turn to the local newspaper to find out what was happening in their town or when the next important meeting was being held. I’ve been to a lot of meetings in Stafford, and I have never seen a reporter at one of them. Twenty years ago when I was a young reporter, there would be at least two —sometimes three — papers covering the meetings I attended.
So, if you’re a regular, working person how are you to know what’s going on in town?
For better or worse, that seems to fall to Facebook groups these days. If you’re lucky, you might see a relatively well-informed post about something going on in town. If not, you’ll go to the polls with just campaign marketing videos and reactionary gossip to inform your decisions (if you go to the polls at all).
We’re just getting started at Stafford Free Press, so our election coverage is limited. But I hope you’ll take a little time to look at our Q&As, explore some of our articles about what happens at meetings, and generally get as informed as you can before you cast your vote. That’s why I’ve been doing this!
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