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Truly a Great Barrington town meeting unlike any other. The residents are in their cars in the Monument Mountain Regional High School parking lot as opposed to the auditorium due to COVID-19 concerns. @WAMCNews
Here& #39;s how voting will be conducted tonight.
The meeting- which will see a reduced warrant of "essentials only" due to the circumstances- is being broadcast on FM radio to the cars from a small transmitter on 90.5- hey, that& #39;s pretty close to good ol& #39; WAMC right next door at 90.3!
Cutting Edge AV of Lee, Massachusetts is handling the broadcast from this van.
Here& #39;s a look at the warrant!
"We do expect to dispense with the warrant tonight," says the moderator. I& #39;ve heard that before.
There& #39;s a notion to adjourn until July 20th, but the moderator has ruled it as out of order saying that the meeting must happen legally.
A car alarm just went off, surely a first for a Great Barrington town meeting.
Great Barrington& #39;s police department makes up $1.7 million of the $12 million budget.
A speaker is questioning Great Barrington& #39;s police budget at great length.
Another speaker says the city should fund police budget increases from the medical marijuana fund.
Someone& #39;s made a motion to reduce the police budget by $200k.
There are 17 full time cops- 14 who patrol- in the community of around 7k.
Tellers are out counting votes in the parking lot now.
It looks like the motion will fail, but let& #39;s see.
The selectboard members are all against the motion.
This counting process is a bit of a mess right now.
The moderator says a second vote may be necessary.
Okay, we& #39;re doing it again!
Someone says non residents are trying to vote.
Covering town meetings as an visitor is always vaguely voyeuristic, like watching a stranger& #39;s family have a fight in public.
The motion fails, 74-132.
Another motion has been made to cut the police budget by $36k to level fund it from the previous year.
Another resident says it& #39;s inappropriate to make cuts to the police department, and that people should work to make change before the town meeting.
The specific request included cutting the $30k overtime line item, which is up 21% from last year.
Total spending on the police is up $33,586 (or +2%) over last year for a $1,723,347 proposal.
Another speaker is rebutting the guy who said this was inappropriate, saying this is the exact place for this kind of action.
The motion fails.
Great Barrington, MA- pop. ~$7k- voted down two motions to make cuts to its $1.7 million police budget at its annual town meeting tonight. @WAMCNews
