Unintended Consequences

Re: recent posts concerning another town committee to review town manager-style government. I wonder what might have happened if the Selectboard had fixed the town manager petition and allowed it to go to the voters rather than turning it into an advisory article.

We can only speculate as to the outcome of a vote on the article had it been allowed, but I think it's fair to assume the debate over this article would have been much more vigorous. Any number of people might have spoken up who felt no need to debate an advisory article on the matter. More might have reviewed the original committee report to understand what prompted the creation of a town manager in the first place. Proponents of rescinding the town manager structure would have been forced to defend their position not merely as criticism of the existing town manager but as a better approach to town government in itself. Had the Selectboard allowed the voters to decide the matter, the entire political landscape of the weeks leading up to town meeting would have been altered. Whether a town manager makes sense might well have dwarfed whether our police are properly supervised. We'll never know.

I recall Warren Rudman's comment defending "the People's right to be wrong," as a basic principle of democratic leadership and I tend to agree. An advisory article to create a new committee to revisit the town manager question occurs only at the expense of the handful of volunteers who will labor on that committee. A majority decision to reverse the town manager structure would have thrown town government into turmoil, the decision made at the expense of the people who made the decision. Shouldn't we trust the voters to recognize the risk, or, at very least, give voters the opportunity to get the government we deserve? Or do we have that already?