The writer is a member of Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting, serving District 9, and is a member of the RTM Human Services Committee.
BRATTLEBORO-As the debate over Representative Town Meeting (RTM), open Town Meeting (OTM), and the Australian ballot (AB) continues, I’ve heard it said that some RTM members show up only for hot-ticket issues.
Full disclosure: The 2024 Acceptable Community Conduct Ordinance debate is what brought me into RTM. After witnessing what I believed to be a sharp decline in downtown safety, I felt compelled to engage.
I moved to Brattleboro in 2014 from Springfield, Massachusetts, grateful to leave behind a tenement riddled with gang activity, drug trafficking, vandalism, and violence. Here, my daughter and I could breathe.
But over time, I saw downtown drifting toward the instability I once escaped. It was triggering and deeply concerning. I asked myself: How can one person support safety in this community?
At the Dec. 12, 2024 Special Representative Town Meeting, I supported the ordinance.
What struck me wasn’t just the organized opposition; it was the claim that those of us wanting accountability for public misconduct lack empathy or understanding. I will spare the gritty details of my lived experiences, but I do not lack compassion. Caring about safety and caring about people are not mutually exclusive.
Instead of staying angry, I got involved. I ran for RTM.
As a newly elected member, I heard repeated accusations that the Human Services Committee (HSC) lacked transparency and operated with conflicts of interest. Rather than accept that narrative, I sought to understand it firsthand and was elected to the HSC.
What I found was not secrecy or malice, but intention. Applications are evaluated using a rubric. Members affiliated with organizations recuse themselves from scoring and deliberation. Meetings are public, aside from deliberations. The HSC makes recommendations for allocations, but RTM has the final vote.
Serving on HSC has placed me on nuanced ground. I understand tax concerns and the frustration some feel about funding organizations they believe may contribute to public disorder. But I have also seen how deeply human services funding strengthens our community by providing food, child care, education, domestic violence support, peer counseling, and more.
I personally know individuals whose lives have been stabilized, even saved, by organizations receiving HSC funding, and yes, these people are giving back to this community.
Whether you support HSC or not, its mission is to help people survive and thrive. My experience with this year’s HSC has revealed no hidden agendas, just neighbors trying to responsibly steward funds voted on by RTM.
I’ve been accused of “drinking the Kool-Aid.” I prefer to call it getting involved and learning. Instead of perpetuating assumptions, I stepped into the work.
I encourage you to do the same.
Alisa Arroyo
Brattleboro
The writer is a member of Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting, serving District 9, and is a member of the RTM Human Services Committee.
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