SOURCE: Union Leader
Some wonder whether SB2 works, By JIM KOZUBEK
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
Friday, Mar. 16, 2007

MERRIMACK – Exchanges between councilors and residents at the town and school deliberative sessions this month put the spotlight on the SB2-style of government.

Adopted in Merrimack in 1996, SB2 replaced traditional town meetings with deliberative sessions that precede ballot votes on a subsequent day. Residents at deliberative sessions can discuss and alter proposed warrant articles, but the final decisions are made when voters townwide go to the polls.

This year, voters will cast ballots Tuesday, April 10.

Some residents say they now wonder whether officials at the deliberative sessions are really listening to them or are instead sticking to their political bases and banking on support from people who do not attend the meetings.

At this week's town session, hundreds of residents apparently called for the restoration of the assistant fire chief position and the assistant wastewater chief position by voting to restore $261,286 to the budget.

Town Council Chairman David W. McCray, however, said voters could restore funds to the bottom line of the budget, but had no authority to reinstate particular positions.

Residents Joe Vliet and Jackie Chisholm argued that by reinstating funds that targeted specific positions, there was an implicit intent to restore those positions. But town attorney Matt Upton said those intents were not binding.

In an e-mail to a reporter, McCray said the council may decide not to spend the money and that he must take into account the wishes of people who did not attend the deliberative session when he considers "the will of the people."

Dennis Delay of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies said SB2 has led to many debates on the intent of residents in towns with expanding populations and has created mixed emotions about deliberative sessions. Residents can make their wishes clear by initiating warrant articles, he said.

Town Councilor Betty Spence said the intent to reinstate the assistant fire chief post could have been made explicit in a petitioned warrant article.

At the school district session last week, there was a warrant article calling for the reinstatement of an assistant school principal post, Spence noted. It was withdrawn, however, when $701,054 was reinstated for teacher positions. As a result, supporters of the assistant job gave up the opportunity to send a clear message to the district about that position, she said.

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Residents at deliberative sessions can voice opinions about proposals. Sometimes opposing views can create tension.

At the school district session, Jennifer Twardosky was told to sit down or risk ejection from the meeting after she asked a question about projected enrollment.

"School people," she said in a subsequent interview. "I just wanted to know what the projected enrollment was for next year, and I am threatened to be ejected."

Twardosky said she wanted to state publicly that the budget has more than doubled in the last decade and enrollment is projected to decline by 19 percent in the next decade.

Moderator Carol Whitlock said she believed Twardosky was causing trouble and that state law gave her the authority to place Twardosky under "duress,'' detaining her elsewhere until the meeting ended.

"Anyone who thought they had the privilege to argue with the moderator would get he same treatment," Whitlock said.

Spence said she thought Whitlock had overreacted.

"I felt it was a valid question pertaining to the discussion and the wrong call," she said. "It just sent a bad message."

Resident Chuck Mower doesn't like SB2. Nonetheless, he commended residents for speaking up at the deliberative sessions.

"It says we do cherish the values the community," he said. "It says something about our spirit, that there is something more important than this small amount of money."

Spence said there had been a lot of mixed emotion about deliberative sessions.

"There are alternatives," she said. "We could change our government again. We could become a city."