As a faithful Concord Town Meeting participant for over 35 years who has even had occasion to delve into “Town Meeting Time,” the manual for the correct conduct of town meetings in Massachusetts, I see no use for clickers at Town Meeting.
There are maybe one or two votes that require counting during the usual three nights of Town Meeting. Counting usually takes about 20 minutes or so. If the cost to rent clickers is $6,000, a figure I believe I recently saw in a Bridge article, we would be spending $300/minute to save time on one vote. If there were two counted votes we would be spending $150/minute, etc. If clickers are rented it would be an annually recurring expenditure.
Is this really the best use of our funds in a fiscal environment that is expected to get tighter over the coming years? If we are nearing a fiscal cliff, don’t we have better things to spend our money on? Like road repair? Or a water treatment plant? As a taxpayer I think we need to scrutinize every expenditure.
Let the Town Meeting Study Committee do its work and decide what is best for the town.
Dave Lebling
Annursnac Hill Road
