SWAMPSCOTT — This year’s Town Meeting — in which members logged in online, and hit a green button to vote “Yes” and a red button for “No” — was anything but orthodox.
“This is clearly going to be a town meeting for the ages,” said Moderator Michael McClung.
Town Meeting members tuned in virtually for the 2020 annual Town Meeting, a first in the history of Swampscott. Although the meeting was posted to start at 6 p.m. — with preliminary precinct-specific caucuses happening first, followed by the reading of warrant articles at 7 — the first article of the 12-article warrant wasn’t read until 7:46 p.m.
On Facebook, residents posted about their frustrations with the virtual meeting on the page Swampscott 01907. At one point, there was confusion about how exactly to watch the meeting.
Residents who had tuned in at 6 p.m. to watch the meeting on Swampscott TV eventually found themselves looking at a gray page with upcoming broadcast listings before the Town Meeting stream restarted at 7 p.m.
During the virtual broadcast, McClung ran several tests to make sure Town Meeting members could properly vote virtually, and spent more time making sure relevant members of the town government were present.
McClung asked people to click a “green ‘Yes'” button if they wished to go forward with the online format, with Town Meeting members having the option to click a “red ‘No'” button if they opposed the format. There were 250 votes in favor of continuing with the format and one opposed.
Before getting to the articles at hand, a collection of videos was shown, in which Swampscott students and teachers voiced their support for recent protests against racial violence and police brutality, which have spread across the nation — including in Swampscott — since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police on May 25.
“It would be of great service to hire more people of color in Swampscott Public Schools,” said one student.
“I’d really like to see things change,” said another.
The first article asked the town to appropriate $69,368,417 for the budget of the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The current fiscal year’s budget is $68,964,549. Although the proposed budget is higher than that of the current fiscal year, some departments have seen cuts, notably the schools, which, under the proposed budget, received a 3.2 percent cut and a total fund of $29,154,254.
“We wanted to focus on our priorities,” said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “No line item was immune, no department was immune.”
Fitzgerald has consistently said the COVID-19 pandemic — and related uncertainty regarding state aid and town tax revenue — has led to cuts.
As of press time, the first article — the town budget — had not yet been voted. Please visit www.itemlive.com for updates.
Tune in to watch a recording of the Swampscott Annual Town Meeting at tv.swampscottma.gov. Times the annual Town Meeting will air on the channel are listed on the right-hand side of the page.
