The writer serves Brattleboro's District 9 as a Representative Town Meeting member.
BRATTLEBORO-Representative Town Meeting (RTM) has served our town well for over 60 years. RTM members serve the town and provide oversight with consistency, civility, and commitment.
I will be voting to retain RTM because it is by far the largest gathering we have to regularly discuss our shared interests and decisions. RTM is a cross-section of our community by age, class, and outlook.
Democracy is not purely a math problem; democracy is a story of engagement and participation in our community life.
Why in this world of diminishing civility and hyperpartisanship would we discontinue a forum that involves face-to-face discussion and debate that is respectful and informed?
The ability to consider articles put forward by the Selectboard - and to amend them - is essential. It will not happen in a purely ballot form of self-government. RTM has been a forum for nearly every challenge we have faced in Brattleboro. Decisions and priorities have been weighed and acted upon.
Brattleboro has a hybrid form of government. We already use townwide Australian ballot for to choose our elected officials and decide other questions as determined by our town charter.
The Selectboard serves as our primary legislature, by state law. The Selectboard discussions, debates, and votes are recorded and broadcast for all to see. Representative Town Meeting is a deliberative body, a check on the Selectboard, and - to quote the town charter - "a guiding body for the town and a source of ideas, proposals and comments, elected by district, as defined by the board of civil authority. It exercises exclusively all powers vested in the voters of the Town."
We all hear the call that taxes are too high in our town. Representative Town Meeting rejected last year's budget because it called for a 12% increase.
RTM is not the reason we have high taxes. RTM is the reason we are equipped to have real conversations as we likely face even deeper budget cuts in the future. RTM has a history of both checking expenditures and supporting targeted increases.
Our tax woes are the result of many factors in our town, our state, and our nation: health care costs, social needs, housing, the cost of providing municipal services. Competing needs require conversation, deliberation, and prioritization.
RTM tackles the choices that town finances are forcing upon us. Our taxes are borne largely by small business, residential homeowners, and - through the cost of housing - renters. None of these financial pressures were created by RTM. Ending RTM will not change these factors. It will only diminish our ability to civilly and democratically respond to these challenges.
It is time to move forward with Representative Town Meeting and to work with the Brattleboro's Charter Review Commission to make some needed improvements to town government.
The basic structure of RTM is sound. We are "the One and Only Brattleboro," and we can handle being the one example of Representative Town meeting in Vermont. The RTM has served us consistently through times of controversy and non-controversy for over 60 years.
A no vote on Article 2 on Tuesday, March 3 will be a vote in favor of civil democracy as we work together to solve the challenges before us.
Andy Davis
Brattleboro
The writer serves Brattleboro's District 9 as a Representative Town Meeting member.
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