Last night, I got to see small town bureaucracy at work, firsthand. First of all, let me just say that--sweet Mother of God--it takes an awfully long time to get one thing done!
Last night was our town's Representative Town Meeting (RTM), and I wanted to go because A) I was invited, and B) they were discussing the town budget, of which the school budget falls into--with 2 children in public schools, and one on her way, I kind of have a vested interest.
Well, the first item on the agenda was not the town budget. It was a $2+ million dollar something or other (hey, it was a long meeting, and there were an awful lot of numbers involved. Bear with me here) that involved funding to update bathrooms at an elementary school, update a cafeteria at another elementary school, and paving, among (many, many, many) other things. Oh yeah, funding for a girl's softball field was lumped in there as well.
So, first things first: they opened the floor up for member comments. The final RTM comment was by a rep who felt this issue should be delayed until their next meeting (so she could gather more information). Problem was, things like asphalt paving, and school issues are time sensitive, and really can't wait another month. So, let's have some member comment on waiting.
Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment.
OK, now let's have some public comment on waiting.
Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment.
Now, we vote. Oh wait, it sounds too close; let's do a roll call vote. What's that? The roll call vote is too close? Ya know what? We should have a caucus about this. Cue all 50+ RTM members leaving the room to talk about it. 10 minutes later, they're back, voting again.
Lucky for us--I think--they voted not to wait. So let's talk about issue #1 of issue #1 (remember, it's bathrooms, cafeteria, paving, a bunch of other stuff, and softball fields). Since there were many young softball players at the meeting, and we're already an hour into a meeting that started at 8pm, that was issue #1 (of issue #1--are you following?).
RTM comments: Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment (these are our reps making an argument for or against the proposed $400,000 field).
Public comment: Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment x about 30. No kidding--people are really either vehemently for, or opposed to this field.
RTM comments about the public comments: Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment. The last comment actually ended with a poem the rep wrote while the public was making comments. Are you kidding me??!
OK, let's vote. Oh wait, let's do a roll call vote again. Permission to allocate $400,000 for a girl's softball field denied, 30-19.
Next issue: asphalt (issue #2 of issue #1).
OK, by now it's 10:30. It took 2.5 hours to go over this one issue. Now I'm pretty sure that people are not as passionate about paving as they are about softball, but I wasn't leaving that up to chance. I got up and left. And glad that I did--because according to sources, the whole shabang ended at 2AM.
So that's it; that's my foray into small town politics. I have no idea what happened with the town budget, I just hope that my being there (along with many, many other parents and educators) had an impact. Lord knows this meeting had an impact on me.
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