AMHERST — A privately administered online forum that allows elected representatives to communicate with each other is generating discussion about fairness in the wake of Town Meeting’s rejection of a $67.2 million elementary school project.
Kevin Collins, a supporter of the school project and Precinct 5 Town Meeting member, said this discussion group, hosted on Yahoo, is a means for strategizing by members to take place out of the public eye.
“This is behind the backs of voters,” Collins said.
He feels there was also undue influence on the listserv when the ballot question was brought to a townwide Proposition 2½ debt exclusion vote on Election Day.
“All you ever heard from was the same few people proselytizing against the ballot question,” Collins said. “They are using the listserv to influence voting on questions on the ballot.”
Despite the complaints from Collins, who has been a vocal critic of Town Meeting, the listserv remains a valuable tool, said Mary Streeter, a Precinct 8 Town Meeting member who has administered the group since 2003.
“We’re talking about free speech here,” Streeter said. “This is open to any Town Meeting member.”
The Yahoo forum has about 215 members, 130 of whom are active elected Town Meeting members. The rest are Select Board and School Committee members, former Town Meeting members and individuals who have brought petition articles forward to Town Meeting.
As an elected member of the Town Meeting Coordinating Committee, which aims to educate representatives about the Town Meeting warrant, Streeter said the forum is an essential component that shouldn’t be lost.
Article 2 on the warrant, which sought to authorize borrowing for the school project, generated a lot of discussion, Streeter said. The discussion group, she said, became an outlet for information that supplemented precinct meetings, bus tours and a direct email list, with opportunity for School Committee and Select Board members to offer comments on the project.
Streeter said a rule is to “discuss issues, not people” and that electioneering is prohibited, such as in 2007, when members of the group attempted to advertise campaign events.
At the Nov. 28 Select Board meeting, Chairwoman Alisa Brewer said she has become uncomfortable with the discussion group.
“I think it’s become poisonous,” Brewer said, adding that the town’s website no longer permits a link directing Town Meeting members to the listserv. Brewer said the listserv is a successor to a similar forum she and Streeter created in 2002 when she undertook a “Not This Charter” campaign to stop a proposed charter change at the time. That charter, which would have replaced Town Meeting with a nine-member town council and a mayor, was defeated by 13 votes in 2003.
In 2012, Yahoo altered the format for its forums and no longer allowed observers to read exchanges on the forum.
“It was better when it was public. Everyone should be able to view it,” Brewer said.
Streeter said she has unsuccessfully tried to change this back by contacting Yahoo.
Though messages can’t be read by voters, the listserv is not violating open meeting law, as Town Meeting members are generally exempt from this law, and members are also not considered municipal employees, meaning they don’t have conflict of interest when they vote.
Brewer’s comments about the listserv came during the Select Board’s review of fall Town Meeting. The online forum, Brewer said, is part of a larger Town Meeting ethos that is set on rejecting what is presented by the board and committees whose members face the auditorium.
“Town Meeting doesn’t trust the front of the room right now,” Brewer said.
Streeter said that is an unfair generalization. “I think a lot of the comments that night were strongly worded,” Streeter said. “I felt the folks were coming on a bit stronger than needed.”
Andrew Churchill, who serves as a Precinct 3 Town Meeting member and chairman of the Charter Commission, said he recently suggested that the listserv should be publicly viewable again, and that Town Meeting members participating should possibly have town email addresses.
Precinct 7 Town Meeting member Irv Rhodes, who also serves on the Charter Commission, said that factions in town are recruiting members to support an agenda or, in the case of the school project, support or oppose one issue.
The listservs add fuel to this, Rhodes said at a recent meeting.
“There are other listservs that go out to their own particular members,” Rhodes said. “Two separate listservs that serve two particular factions. I’m not sure how representative that is.”
Brewer said she posted the press releases issued by the Select Board in favor of the school Proposition 2½ debt exclusion vote and the borrowing authorization on the listserv, in case they had not been seen on the town website.
Brewer, though, said she isn’t sure the function of the listserv as a place for members to get questions answered still works.
“People will ask factual questions of people who don’t know the answers,” Brewer said “When I offered factual information, I was immediately criticized for doing so.”
Streeter said 10,337 messages have been posted to the group since 2003, and the forum remains a useful tool. There is appreciation, she said, for those who do answer questions and provide accurate information to members. “I applaud people who respond,” Streeter said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
