Session 4 Pace Quickens A Bit, As Ranked-Choice Voting, Transfer Fee Advance

Arlington MA

08 May, 2021

12:22 PM

Description

Your Arlington Last Updated: 06 May 2021 Written by Christian Klein, town website UPDATED, May 6: Hope emerged during session four that the 2021 annual Town Meeting would conclude before the state-required deadline of June 16. To date, the meeting has addressed 63 of 91 articles, including six on Wednesday, May 5. Adopted among them were articles seeking ranked-choice voting and a real estate transfer fee. The fifth session, Monday, May 10, focuses on budgets. Moderator John Leone cited an issue with the broadcast of Town Meeting on Comcast. The town, ACMi and Comcast are working to fix it. Meanwhile, the public can live-stream Town Meeting >> Article 24 (ranked-choice voting) The article was approved 202-38. It will now go to the state to decide if we will be allowed to adopt this new voting method. Article 25 (real estate transfer fee) The vote on the main motion as amended was passed 187-50. Article 28 (increase time to comply with inclusionary zoning). No discussion; adopted, 235-4. Article 29 (new definition for "apartment conversion"). Apartment conversions apply only to larger houses in specific districts being subdivided into smaller apartments to preserve the usually historic housing. After clarifications about parking, the measure passed, 225-7. Article 30 (calculating usable, landscaped open areas). The main motion of this clarification of the bylaw passed, 222-14. Article 33 (five administrative changes to the zoning bylaws). The main motion passed, 223-6. Article 35 (changes to the Industrial Zoning District). Discussions of three video presentations and an amendment did not result in a vote, and the meeting adjourned. For details, read Klein's notes. They are his opinions and observations; they are not authoritative. For an unbiased presentation, see the videos at ACMi.tv. Session No. 4 >> Session 3 lumbers along: No action on trust fund, email plea tabled, ranked-choice voting discussed Democracy proceeded at a glacial pace Monday, May 3, at session three of the 2021 annual Town Meeting, voting in three hours on one article, tabling a second and debating a third. Moderator John Leone said the meeting could have 30 more sessions, an unprecedented number. Precinct 10 member Christian Klein, who takes his own meeting notes, offered this opinion: "The discussion on [ranked-choice voting] is important, and we need to make a well informed decision. However, we are not getting a wide breadth of opinions. There are many similar opinions on both sides, with a scant few in between." The three articles addressed were:21 (affordable-housing trust fund). The vote of "no action" was approved, 190-49. 22 (email addresses for meeting members). The motion to table was approved unanimously. 24 (ranked-choice voting) produced lengthy debate, which was to continue Wednesday, May 5. For details, read Klein's notes. They are his opinions and observations; they are not authoritative. For an unbiased presentation, seethe videos at ACMi.tv. Session No. 3 >> Session 2 OKs domestic partnerships, remote-participation study "This was kind of a slow night," Precinct 10 member Christian Klein wrote in his meeting notes about session two of the 2021 annual Town Meeting. "These were very important articles, but we only got to 2 1/2 of them." The third session occurs Monday, May 3. Returning to Article 7 (rock removal), the meeting on Wednesday, April 28, learned that 10 permits were taken out for blasting for seven sites in the last 10 years. A move to end debate debate failed to reach a two-thirds' vote, 134-86. After further discussion, including choice words from John Worden (Precinct 8), the article failed, 62-172. Debate about Article 15 (domestic partnerships) was lengthier. (Articles 8 through 14 were dealt with April 26 under the consent agenda.) Select Board Chairman Stephen DeCourcey (2) said the board recommends limiting partnerships to two people, fearing the attorney general's concern about plural arrangements. Amos Meeks (3) introduced the proposal with a video, noting he has two long-term domestic partners.Speakers raised a number of issues, among them that this is a civil-rights issue for some. Former Select Board member Dan Dunn (21) supported the motion and amendment, citing the protections he now has as a gay man, and he feels it is time to extend those protections further. The amendment was adopted, 192-37. The amended main motion passed, 221-11. Article 20 (studying remote meeting participation in meetings after Covid) met with an amendment from Adam Auster (3), asking how information from public boards can be better provided. Elizabeth Dray (8) had two amendments, which received support. [See Klein's notes for details.] After debate ended, 186-46, votes were: Auster's approved, 207-19; Dray's first amendment, approved, 197-37; second failed, 98-131; Gordon Jamieson's (12) approved, 118-106. The final vote on the original motion as amended passed, 230-6. At 10:57 p.m., Moderator John Leone called for notices of reconsideration and a motion to adjourn. It was held up by a point of order. John Worden reported he had received a database error message multiple times. He said his votes had not been recorded. Leone indicated that the town IT people will research the issue and report back at the third session, Monday, May 3. For details, read Christian Klein, a Precinct 10 meeting member, who takes note about each session. They are his opinions and observations; they are not authoritative. For an unbiased presentation, see the videos at ACMi.tv. Session No. 2 >> Session 1: Debate tops action as one article OK'd plus the consent agenda The first session of the 2021 annual Town Meeting slowed to a crawl on Monday, April 26, as members managed to vote on one article during the three-hour session. Democracy favors a variety of voices, and that was the case. On Article 6 (term limits for the Community Preservation Act Committee), the discussion from a number of members, some connected to Arlington Fights Racism, favored limits. The vote on the main motion to eliminate term limits was approved, 164-70. Article 7 (regulating rock excavation), debated at length, went unresolved, and discussion was to continue Wednesday, April 28. To be fair, 48 articles were managed via the consent agenda (routine items). For details, read Christian Klein, a Precinct 10 meeting member, who takes note about each session. They are his opinions and observations; they are not authoritative. For an unbiased presentation, see the videos at ACMi.tv. Session No. 1 >> Main town website Town Meeting link (read all reports) >> Menotomy Matters: Annual town Meeting warrant annotatedYourArlington's main Town Meeting linkFeb. 17, 2021: 28 citizen articles for spring meetingNov. 16 to Dec. 2, 2020: Special Town Meeting YourArlington.com has provided news and opinion about Arlington, Mass., since 2006. Publisher Bob Sprague is a former editor at The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Arlington Advocate. Read more at https://www.yourarlington.com/about.