Selectmen Set Dates for 2012 Elections, Town Meeting

Wayland’s 2012 Annual Town Meeting will begin on Monday, April 9, 2012, with Town Elections scheduled to occur on Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

The Board of Selectmen’s vote to commence Annual Town Meeting the Monday after Easter was unanimous in spite of much discussion in recent week’s surrounding the possibility of a Sunday session of Town Meeting as well as pushing the start date back to later in April or even into May.

During public comment at the selectmen’s Monday night meeting, Dave Bernstein urged selectmen to include a Sunday session in the town meeting schedule, saying the daytime session would “allow more citizens to participate.” In particular, Bernstein said, seniors who do not like to drive at night would be able to attend a daytime Sunday session.

But Louis Jurist spoke out against the Sunday session saying it would conflict with spring sports. “We’ve tried that … it was a failure.”

In 2007, Annual Town Meeting took place on a Sunday and drew about 640 residents. A Sunday session in 2011, day-two of a three-day Annual Town Meeting, drew about 340 residents.

During the vote discussion later, Selectmen focused largely on avoiding conflict with Easter and its surrounding days of recognition. They also spoke in favor of keeping Town Meeting early in April, before spring break, rather than pushing it into late April or early May.

A 2009 Town Meeting article anticipated the potential difficulty of scheduling Annual Town Meeting during an April that happens to include Passover, Easter, Patriot’s Day and spring break. The article, passed by residents and supported unanimously by then-members of the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee, expanded “by 15 days the period during which the Annual Town Meeting can begin,” which means a May Annual Town Meeting is possible.

Selectmen Monday night, however, said they felt town residents were more likely to be involved in town issues earlier in the spring and before spring break.

“For me, it’s always been with these Town Meeting issues, what scenario brings maximum attendance,” Board Chair Tom Fay said. “My general sense … is that the earlier you can have it, the better.”

Selectmen Sue Pope spoke more strongly for an early April schedule, saying she “adamantly opposed” having the meeting late in the month.

“After April vacation, people seem to lose their interest in town happenings,” Pope said.

She also spoke against a Sunday session, as did Selectmen Steve Correia, who called Sunday “family time,” and said he received this week as many emails opposed to a Sunday meeting as he did supporting it.

“If seniors are the issue and they can’t get there during the weeknights, than we need to talk about that,” Correia said. “We need to get our senior population to these meetings whether it be on a Sunday or in the evenings. My gut feeling is it’s worked for the last six years with a good turnout during the week.

“I don’t think this is the year to be playing around with Sunday meeting.”

In the end, Selectmen voted unanimously to begin the 2012 Annual Town Meeting on Monday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Wayland Middle School. Town Elections will take place on April 3.

Setting the start date for Town Meeting and Town Elections puts in place numerous deadlines and dates related to those town events. A few of those are highlighted below.

Dec. 19 – Warrant opens.

Jan. 3. – Nomination papers available for town election.

Jan. 9 – Selectmen will hold a Petitioners’ Workshop.

Jan. 17, 4:30 p.m. – Deadline to submit warrant articles.

Feb. 14 – Town Election nomination papers due to Town Clerk.

March 14 – Last day to register to vote.

March 20 – Warrants delivered to residents.