One way to correct the direction our town has been taken in, is to start over with our elected officials; the Selectmen. If the voters agree; According to RSA 41:8-d, we can petition the voters to rescind our previous action of increasing the board to 5 Selectmen and reduce it to 3 Selectmen by petition.
According to RSA41 8-e: If a town votes to decrease its board to 3 members, at the annual meeting following the meeting at which it so voted, the terms of office of all members of the Board of Selectmen shall end and the town shall elect 3 new members to the Board of Selectmen. We can vote to start over and any selectmen would have to rerun for the office. This would be the first step to regaining control of our town an insuring that Winchester would become a town of it's people, governed in a manner in which everyone had a voice and those voices would be heard. No more " we'll take it under advisement, thank you for your comments" and then nothing is done. It's time to elect officials who will listen and then act on the concerns of it's citizens. What say thee?
For those who question the legality of this issue .. we'll go one step farther.
41:8-d Revocation. – A town which has voted to enlarge its board of selectmen may rescind its action in the manner described in RSA 41:8-b, except that the question shall read: "Are you in favor of decreasing the board of selectmen to 3 members?''
and pursuant to RSA 656:13.
41:8-e Effective Date and Manner of Increase or Decrease. – If a town votes to enlarge or to decrease its board of selectmen the change does not take effect in either case until the first annual meeting following the meeting at which the questions were acted upon. If the town votes to enlarge the board to 5 members, at the first annual meeting following the meeting when the action was taken the town shall elect 2 members for a 3-year term and one member for a one-year term. At the next succeeding annual meeting 2 members shall be elected for a 3-year term, at the next following annual meeting one member shall be elected for a 3-year term, and at succeeding annual meetings members shall be elected to fill the vacancies regularly occurring. If a town votes to decrease its board to 3 members, at the annual meeting following the meeting at which it so voted, the terms of office of all members of the board of selectmen shall end and the town shall elect 3 members of the board of selectmen, one for one year, one for 2 years, one for 3 years and at all succeeding annual meetings shall elect a member to the board for a 3-year term.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Just how many signatures are needed for a petition to start this process and where does it get submitted, which department would it be to file it?
This is surely going to cause some discomfort at the town hall. Think of the implications for all of them there if the voters decide it's time for a big change.
We need 25 signatures of registered voters. Then we submit it to the town clerk to verify that all signatures are registered voters. Then it goes to deliverable session. No changes can be made to this warrant article. Then it is put on the list of town warrants for the voters. Anyone wanting see how the system works and wants to sign the petition e-mail me at timbuctu@live.com. I will stop by your home.
Thank you for your over-whelming response in giving me your signatures for the selectmen warrant article. We have enough signatures in short time and it was nice to meet our supporters. We the people will take back our town.
The Town Warrant to return to 3 selectmen was submitted and certified by the town clerk Thursday. Please support us in March for this Warrant Article. If passed by the voters, this will remove all 5 of the selectmen next year 2010 and we select 3 new ones. If some of the selectmen want to run again on their merits (if they have any)they can. Hopefully they will get the message from the voters. We will take back our town and stop wasting our tax dollars. Every other town are cutting back except
Winchester. We do not need to cut employees or services, just learn to get by with less for a couple of years.
Post a Comment