Leone Re-election Announcement

Arlington MA

09 February, 2022

11:56 AM

Description

With a sense of optimism for our future, I am pleased to announce my candidacy for re-election as Moderator, and to ask for your vote at our April 2 Annual Town Election. The past two years have been challenging for all elected officials. The pandemic presented unique challenges for a town that conducts its business by convening 252 Town Meeting Members in a packed auditorium. Together, we met the challenge of conducting the town’s business during the pandemic. Working with many volunteers and town officials, I planned, organized, and handled the logistics for two very different kinds of Town Meeting. In 2020, we approved the financial articles required to keep the town running with a socially distanced June meeting on the high school football field. We moved to Zoom and a customized voting portal to conduct a Special Town Meeting in November, as well as our 2021 Annual Town Meeting last Spring. I first served as Moderator in 2008, and many of the reforms I enacted over the past 14 years helped to ease the strain of conducting the town’s business during the pandemic. I respect the volunteer service of our Town Meeting Members, and I have worked to focus Town Meeting time on the governing decisions requiring thoughtful debate through several innovative reforms. One innovation was the creation of a consent agenda, which packages noncontroversial items so they can be enacted with one vote. I brought a scoreboard-sized time clock to Town Hall to impartially enforce newly shortened speaking time limits. I respected Members’ right to be informed of pending votes with a rule requiring motions to be presented and distributed electronically 48 hours prior to debate. I worked with some talented volunteers to successfully implement electronic voting. Using “clickers” to vote eliminated the time-consuming task of conducting standing votes, and now Town Meeting Members are accountable for the votes they cast in Town Meeting. I also worked to reduce the tons of paper we generated each year, and to make our government more transparent, by moving to an annotated electronic Town Warrant. The annotated warrant is posed on the town’s webpage, so Town Meeting Members and the public can use it to track motions, amendments, and votes on the articles before Town Meeting. Prior to becoming your Moderator, the average Town Meeting lasted for 10 sessions. These reforms reduced the pre-pandemic average to only six sessions, making service more manageable for Town Meeting Members, and this efficiency encouraged more voters to run for seats in Town Meeting. The responsibility of the Moderator is to plan, organize, preside over and run Town Meeting, the debate on the articles, to take and announce the votes and to assist in the assembly and approval of the Town Warrant. Moderators do not advocate for or write policy; the job requires having a good understanding of parliamentary procedure, Town Bylaws, and the traditions of the Town Meeting. I pride myself on my honesty, directness, and fairness, and I am running for re-election in order to continue this work. I was first elected to Town Meeting in 1994, and I have served in many other volunteer positions in the town. I am currently President of Arlington Community Media, Inc., and have served on its Board of Directors for the past 20 years. I am also a member of the Massachusetts Moderators Association, and I served as its President in 2017-18. In addition, my service as a volunteer includes the: • Zoning Bylaw Review Committee, serving as Chair for three years; • Millennium Time Capsule Committee; • Town Meeting Rules and Procedures Committee; • Government Reorganization Committee; • Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Citizen of the Year 2017; • Board of Directors of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce; • Board of Directors and Past President of the Touchdown Club of Arlington. I am an attorney with a practice in Arlington. My professional experience, combined with my service as your Moderator, my volunteerism, and my deep understanding of the way our town government functions, makes me the right choice for Town Moderator. I ask for your support and vote for Moderator on Saturday, April 2. John D. Leone, 51 Irving St., Arlington, MA. 02476 781-641-3546, [email protected]