Does Town Meeting Still Work?

The same day that Lynnfield happened to be heading into its own spring town meeting, Jennifer Braceras of the Boston Herald wrote a column entitled "Town's Meeting's Great, as History." Town Moderator Arthur Bourque even mentioned the column in passing as he opened Monday night's meeting, citing the important role that town meeting plays in democracy.

Many residents remember that back in the fall of 2011, too few people showed up at that town meeting to have a quorum. For Monday's town meeting, the start time was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. But it took a little extra time to get resident #175 into the LMS auditorium so that the required quorum could be attained.

Low attendance is not just a Lynnfield issue for town meeting. Neighboring Wakefield has at least 10,000 more residents, and last fall seems to have drawn fewer than 200 to its town meeting - about two weeks after 14,576 Wakefield residents showed up to vote in the general election.

We know the basic reasons for not showing up at a town meeting - work and family responsibilities, especially on a weeknight, for example. Plus, these are local issues and many years, without an attention-grabbing item on the warrant, these meetings can be admittedly pretty slow - or just plain dominated by the same one or two people for several hours. That said - it's still local democracy in action, and showing up is pretty much the only way to make a difference.

Where do you stand on this? Is town meeting something to preserve or is it time to try something else?