We Marbleheaders can be an impatient lot. We love our Town Meeting form of government. As the town’s legislative body, the open Town Meeting format is the purest form of democracy, we say, and it dates back to 1649.
But we’ve noticed a trend that, in our opinion, borders on disrespect for the decisions made by our legislative body. Those decisions are too often subject to reconsideration before they are given a chance to succeed.
A case in point: the 2023 Town Meeting vote to have staggered, three-year Select Board terms via the home-rule petition process. With the ink hardly dry on the new bylaw, a citizens’ petition on the 2024 warrant calls for its repeal. As yet, the home-rule petition that the 2023 Town Meeting approved has neither landed on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk nor passed the Legislature, though it is advancing. On March 7, the House approved on a voice vote S. 2652, the bill to change the Select Board term, which the Senate had already approved.
One more vote of approval in the House and one in the Senate, and the bill will be ready for Healey’s signature.
In an editorial before the 2023 Town Meeting, we urged voters to support staggered three-year terms, and our opinion has not changed. We previously advocated for extending Marblehead Select Board members’ terms because this change would allow them to dedicate their full attention to the town’s affairs without the constant distraction of annual reelection campaigns. Moreover, implementing staggered three-year terms would enable voters to assess each Select Board member’s individual performance more effectively rather than simply evaluating the board’s collective efforts.
This year, Article 49 calls on the town to rescind the staggered three-year terms and reinstate one-year terms. We think that would be a mistake.
Another case in point: Leaf blowers. Last year, the Town Meeting approved a summertime moratorium on gas-powered leaf blowers from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with fines being levied against homeowners, not landscapers. We believe it contributed to a quiet, relaxing summer.
But this year, leaf blowers are back. A trio of citizens’ petitions enshrined in Articles 43-45 ask Town Meeting to expand the prohibition to year-round, remove an exemption for town employees and up fines to $300 for both homeowners and landscapers caught in violation.
We believe the seasonal ban was a hard-fought compromise over several years, and we hope with the rejection of Articles 43-45, it will be the last we’ve heard of leaf blowers.
