As he indicated at Tuesday’s Select Board meeting, Town Manager Norman Khumalo is organizing a survey of residents’ thoughts about Annual Town Meeting, focused on the lack of participation from voters.
The survey includes 17 questions and asks residents their opinions about Town Meeting, where they get their information, what prevents them from attending and what might encourage them to attend more often. It also includes questions about possible changes to Town Meeting procedures.
“Annual Town Meeting is an important legislative process and community participation is vital to help ensure the decisions that are made are reflective of our residents’ sentiments,” Khumalo stated. “We encourage residents to take a few moments to complete this survey. Your responses will provide us with important information that will help us as we plan for next year’s Annual Town Meeting.”
The survey is open to all Hopkinton residents, whether or not they are registered to vote or attended Town Meeting. It is available now and will remain open through Friday, June 3.
One solution that I have not seen mentioned yet is that we change our town charter to become a city, with a Mayor and city council. The town has over 16,000 citizens and even the quorum required to hold the meeting is not an adequate representation. One has to ask what would happen if even 10% of the town showed up for town meeting. Their would not even be a chance that we would have the facilities to accommodate a group of this size. In addition families with young children or people who have to work evenings have a very difficult time attending a three day meeting.