Town Charter review meeting Wednesday Jan 24 -- BE THERE
The town of Portsmouth has an opportunity to reform the "Tent Meeting" system which has resulted in our school's financial crisis; this Wednesday, the Town Council will hear citizen input on proposals to turn the process into regular full-day voting.
If you're reading this blog, you know what I think of the current system. Ten percent of the town's electors made an uninformed decision to slash blindly at the School budget, putting us 700k in the hole. We need to be sure this doesn't happen again. The SOS, an apparent majority of the Town Council, and every citizen I've talked to says that change is needed.
90% of life is just showing up. Let's be there. 7 pm, Town Hall.
From a recent SOS e-mail:
On Wednesday, January 24th, there will be a public workshop on the proposed amendment to the town charter to do away with tent meetings. In a nutshell, the proposal is to require specific language on any future petition for a modification to the budget approved by the town council, and that a special election would be used instead of a tent meeting as a means of approving the modification or modifications. It is a simple modification of the charter, affecting only a few sentences.
The PCC has already acted to delay any such action, obviously to take advantage of potential future tent meetings, by proposing a full blown charter review committee among other things. The PCC, and some of the Town Council, will argue for adding all sorts of other un-related and semi-related charter amendments as a means of delay. They will argue that the town "shouldn't rush into anything, should take it's time so that everybody can be heard". The PCC and it's supporters will be present in force at this meeting.
Save Our Schools strongly urges all citizens to show up at this workshop and make themselves heard.
What's proposed:
Read the proposed Charter revisions
BTW...Don't worry, it's linked directly to the content frame (frame?!?) on the Town site, bypassing the godawful home page. Why anyone has to load up a Java menu just to at you in 2007 is beyond me -- now THAT'S something I would be happy to circulate a petition to eliminate...