Vote NO on Question 1

On April 23, there will be an opportunity to vote on changes to the town charter. There are
ten proposed amendments in all. The first one addresses requirements for citizen participation in
Wakefield government.

I am voting NO on these changes.

The proposed change would more than double the number of signatures required on a petition
to provide for a referendum [a general vote by all registered voters on a measure passed or proposed by a legislative body]. Currently 200 signatures are required; this would change to 2.5% of all registeredvoters in the town. In February, 2019, Wakefield had 18,681 registered voters. Doing the math, thecharter would now require 467 signatures.

Originally 200 signatures were required because that was the average attendance at town
meetings. That is still the average number of people attending town meeting. It is 1% of Wakefield’s registered voters. On important issues that is the number that is deciding the policy for the over 24,000 people who live in the town.

You may ask, "If issues are important to people why don't they go to town meetings if they
don't like what the 1% is deciding?" I can only say that I don't know but I do know that people will vote on issues important to them. Does missing a town meeting take away their right to vote on important issues?

Why is the number of names on a petition being more than doubled? Who benefits? Certainly
not the people. Maybe a quorum should be necessary for town meeting votes; 2.5% of Wakefield's registered voters sounds like a good number to me.

Eleanor IxChel