Why I didn’t sign off on grant

The town attorney agreed with the last line and advised me to hold off until there was clarity.

To the editor,

I read Alma Rutgers' latest column about the issue of the $500,000 grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). Ms. Rutgers states that by my not signing the agreement, I am somehow “encouraging vote deniers.” On the contrary, I spoke with a town attorney who supported the decision not to sign the document.

My reasoning was as I stated, which is not to short circuit the process when there may be a procedural mechanism in place for a vote to rescind. Representative Town Meeting Moderator Alexis Voulgaris said as much in her email to the RTM membership:

“But I wanted to inform the membership today that given the applicable rules and the results of the analysis of Tuesday evening's vote, I have determined that the vote tally announced on Tuesday evening regarding item 10 is the final vote, subject only to a proper parliamentary device seeking to reopen that vote.”

The town attorney agreed with the last line and advised me to hold off until there was clarity. I think the new voting system will really benefit the RTM, but like a lot of new things, there sometimes are kinks to be worked out. If it takes one more RTM meeting to get them ironed out and get the vote right (if there was an issue), then that is not a bad thing. The silver lining is that there will be adjustments to make the process better and more clear. We should celebrate that and see it for the opportunity to improve this new voting system.

Thanks again to the Town Clerk's office, registrar of voters, and RTM for their service and continued endeavors to improve the governmental process.