Long Town Meeting Renews Calls For Airing AdCom Meetings

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Two years was spent working on the Route 1 zoning changes that were passed at Town Meeting. But despite the months of work, including a recent informational session, residents still walked up to the mic at Town Meeting to say that they’ve never heard about what was being proposed.

The lack of knowledge and need to explain what was being voted on were part of the reason why Town Meeting went past 12:30 a.m. Monday and has Selectman David Feldman pushing for advisory committee meetings to be televised.

“I think (Monday) night was a perfect indication why we should look into televising advisory committee meetings. People are coming to town meeting, not getting the facts. There are presentation made throughout the process,” Feldman said at Tuesday night’s selectmen meeting. “To have someone come up to the mic and say ‘what is this?’ It’s frustrating.”

The advisory committee, which vets and gives a position on all Town Meeting warrant, does not have their meetings filmed for future viewing, meaning that if you want to see the process behind the issues to be considered at Town Meeting, you have to watch the meeting in person.

The decision to air AdCom meetings comes down to moderator Frank Spillane, according to Town Manager Bill Keegan. As pointed out in a 2017 Sun Chronicle column by Bill Gouveia, past members of the committee have said that televising meetings would politicize the gathering and cause people to act differently.

While not taking a position, Keegan said AdCom meetings is where issues are clarified and all the work is done.

“Unfortunately the town never goes to those meetings,” Keegan said.

Selectman Chris Mitchell said he discussed the length of the Town Meeting with residents Monday and Tuesday. He recommended maybe starting the meeting at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m."

This is why you never get a lot of people, because of the length of the meeting," Mitchell said.

Also not taking a position was AdCom member Stephanie McGowan, who said missing a meeting means having to play catch up since you can’t watch them after the fact.

“If you could go back and look at it, it would be helpful,” McGowan said.

Board members were recommended to reach out to Spillane.

The long Town Meeting meant a lack of quorum for the final articles. The meeting is scheduled to reconvene Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at Foxborough High School. At least 100 people are needed to restart the meeting.

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