Majority votes to drop open town meeting

Nonbinding question may lead to study

A convincing majority of North Andover voters who cast ballots Tuesday want to change how the town is governed.

Fifty-one percent voted that the town should replace the open town meeting format it has used for more than 150 years, while 36 percent opposed a change.

The vote was not binding, so it does not automatically modify town government. But it means that even Selectwoman Rosemary Connelly Smedile, who had opposed adding the question to the ballot, concedes the Board of Selectmen will now have to address the issue.

"We have an obligation to bring it up because of what the voters did say," she said.

But what form of government the town should now adopt remains unclear. Town officials were uncertain Thursday how they would respond to the vote. Whether voters elect members to a commission to study the issue or selectmen select members for a panel, it could take years to change the system.

The results came as vindication, but not a surprise, to George Vozeolas, who has been trying for more than a year to convince his fellow residents to consider a change.

Vozeolas had argued that North Andover, with its population of more than 27,000, has outgrown the open town meeting style of government in which all registered voters get to have a say on key decisions at several nights of meetings each year.

That format has roots dating to early settlement days and has lasted in many New England communities. Of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, 262 have open town meetings, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

Thirty-eight others have representative town meetings, in which the community elects residents to represent them at the meetings. The remaining cities and towns use various systems of town managers, mayors, and councils to legislate.

But most of the communities with open town meetings are far smaller than North Andover, which has more than tripled its population since 1950, when it had 8,485 residents. It is now the fourth-largest town in the state with the open town meeting format, behind Andover, Tewksbury, and Dracut.

Following the lead of other communities that have sought a governmental change, Vozeolas initially began a petition drive, seeking signatures from 15 percent of the town's registered voters to have the town elect a charter commission. The elected group of nine residents would have studied the town's charter, then make a recommendation that voters would consider at the ballot box.

But Vozeolas had only about 1,000 of the required 2,354 signatures by the January deadline to make the ballot.

At the time, he had criticized the petition system, saying it required signatures from more people than often turn out for Town Meeting or elections. Indeed, with 19 percent of the town's registered voters showing up for Tuesday's election, his support of 1,725 votes at the ballot box fell short of what he would have needed for the petition drive.

Still, he said, the majority who chose to vote for the subsequent nonbinding question to replace open town meeting agreed, and he now feels he "read the tea leaves right."

Smedile said she was disappointed voters chose to abandon the open town meeting. "It's been a New England tradition; it's been a North Andover tradition," she said. "And it's served us well."

She was the sole selectman to oppose adding the question to the ballot, saying the wording seemed vague and appeared to invite a "yes" vote.

She acknowledged that Town Meeting can run too long and be frustrating, but called it democracy at its purest.

She said she would now support the selectmen forming a committee on the issue. She also supports a commission to review the charter, but said that could take years to complete. She said a committee could make improvements to the town meeting format in the meantime.

Vozeolas, however, said he is wary of a committee formed by the selectmen, concerned that they might pick those who want the status quo.

He said he would prefer a commission that voters get to choose directly.

He said he has even considered putting the question of ending town meeting on the Town Meeting warrant.

Meanwhile, the man who moderates the open form of government for North Andover said he was disappointed by Tuesday's results but will take voters' sentiments into consideration when he runs this year's meeting May 13.

Charles Salisbury said he still thinks the participatory format is the most direct form of democracy, despite the time it consumes.

"I don't like having a root canal, but I don't want it said [that] I can't have one," he said. "I'll do what I can to make it as painless as possible."

Kytja Weir can be reached at kytja.weir@gmail.com.