Video: Town Meeting Recording with Slides.mp4
Caption file: video_transcript.vtt
00:00-00:30
Hi. I'm Jeff Alderson. I'm the Town Moderator in the Town of Natick, and I'm going to explain how Town Meeting works through two real votes that happened right here in Natick. In Massachusetts, many towns have what's called Town Meeting. It's like a student council for the whole town. Elected members vote on big things, like money, rules, and projects. Any resident in the town can come and speak at Town Meeting, but only elected members can vote.
00:30-00:48
My job, the moderator, that's me in Natick, is to make sure that things are fair, that everyone gets a turn to speak, and I'm the one that gets to call out what the actual vote count was, how many people were for or against a motion.
00:48-00:59
You don't take sides as a moderator. You're there to act like a referee and make sure that everyone has a time to speak their mind about the topic at hand.
00:59-01:09
Two things happened in Natick recently. One, we debated whether or not the town should phase out the use of gas leaf blowers.
01:09-01:16
And the second was whether or not we shouldn't build any more artificial turf fields on school grounds.
01:16-01:22
Both of these are real topics that people care a lot about.
01:22-01:29
So for that first question, there was a group in town called EcoNatick that wanted to phase out gas leaf blowers. Why?
01:29-01:40
Well, they're loud. They pollute the air. They might be able to make people sick. People wanted to switch to electric blowers, or just use a rake.
01:40-01:47
Now, some people agreed with that. It was better for our health and the planet. And then some people disagreed.
01:47-01:55
Electric blowers aren't strong enough yet for the big jobs. And the new equipment and that new technology, it costs a lot of money.
01:55-02:02
Both sides made really good points. And at Town Meeting, everyone listened to what they had to say.
02:02-02:09
But when it came time to vote, it was 79 yes, 27 no, and one abstain.
02:09-02:15
An abstain is just basically saying that that person didn't really want to vote on that issue.
02:15-02:21
The yes vote in this case meant that this was going to be sent to a study committee to learn about the topic more.
02:21-02:27
No ban on gas leaf blowers just yet, just more studying.
02:27-02:30
Now let's talk about the second question.
02:30-02:38
Some residents in town asked for a three-year pause on building new turf fields. In town, we call that a moratorium.
02:38-02:47
They really didn't want to have new plastic turf fields because they were worried about player health and students and the environment.
02:47-02:55
While other people said that they needed more fields for kids to play on, and they didn't really care what type of turf or grass it was.
02:55-03:02
One side said that microplastics, little bits of plastics and forever chemicals in the turf field, could be dangerous.
03:02-03:09
The fields get really hot too. The other side on the issue said that turf fields can be used way more than grass fields.
03:09-03:17
That gives students more time to play. And we don't have enough fields today for all the kids who do want to play in their own sports.
03:17-03:23
The outcome of this vote was 74 yes, 28 no, and three abstain.
03:23-03:28
In this case, the yes vote meant that the town agreed to the three-year pause.
03:28-03:34
No new artificial turf fields are going to be built in Natick for three years while the town studies the issue.
03:34-03:42
Existing fields that already were there and may have already been made out of turf, they're fine. They can be maintained and they will stay.
03:42-03:50
So, what do we learn from these two examples? Anyone can speak up. You don't have to be a leader or elected.
03:50-03:54
If you care about something, you can share your idea and discuss it.
03:54-04:02
Debating also helps. Hearing different sides of an issue makes us think harder and make better choices.
04:02-04:12
And every vote counts. Each person that's elected to Town Meeting gets one vote and every vote matters, and that's democracy.