Select Board Expansion
Response to the Select Board decision (2-1) to refuse to sponsor the Government Study Committee article recommendation for Annual Town Meeting re: allowing residents to vote on possible expansion of the Lancaster Select Board. Note that sponsor only means that the Select Board agrees to add the article to the Warrant for Town Meeting. It does not imply endorsement, which is a separate vote.
As a town and its government grows, the town must update its governing structures to safeguard foundational democratic principles.
In a fall 2023 report to the Select Board, the Massachusetts Division of Local Services, a state agency, recommended that Lancaster adopt a five-member Select Board. Their report stated that they “recommend considering an increase of Select Board membership from three to five members. Two more members may allow discussion and deliberations to continue past where a three-member board could find itself deadlocked. Additionally, this would aid in the formation of subcommittees and liaising with other boards and committees, expanding communication with a reduced risk to Open Meeting Law violations.”
The Government Study Committee (GSC), an ad-hoc committee voted into existence by residents at the May 2022 Annual Town Meeting, recommended the same in its 2024 summary report to the Select Board. In a survey by the GSC that collected 242 responses, 59% of those who responded indicated that the most advantageous number of Select Board members for Lancaster is at least five.
A five-member Select Board has several advantages:
A three-person board means that no two (or three) members are legally allowed to deliberate outside of the biweekly meetings. With a five-person board, groups of two can meet to do legwork on specific issues before the board, discuss issues, and troubleshoot obstacles. This means that the board is not forced to only deliberate on essential, complex issues for a few hours every two weeks.
A five-person board allows for a diversity of subcommittees or working groups within the board for different areas of concern. It requires more cooperation and collaboration and is ultimately more representative and democratic.
A five-person board has a quorum of three, and therefore a majority vote must be at least three votes in favor or in opposition to the motion being presented. A five-member board requires more cooperation and collaboration and is ultimately more representative and democratic. This is in contrast to the dynamic on a three-person board, where just two people in lockstep can create lopsided political control that threatens the “small d” democratic participatory governance that our founders intended.
Our Select Board recently voted two against one to prevent the Government Study Committee recommendations from coming to Annual Town Meeting via Select Board sponsorship. In essence, two individuals had the power to decide they won’t let people vote on the expansion of their own board, despite data that there is an appetite to vote on this issue. These votes exemplify the dangers of undemocratic accumulation of power that, unchecked, will continue to grow as the Town grows.
