Tie vote kills proposed study of Tiverton financial town referendum

TIVERTON — A tie vote killed a proposal for a study committee to examine the financial town referendum process and suggest changes.

The proposal by outgoing Town Council President Patricia Hilton to have a five-member advisory committee study the process and suggest amendments was put before the council Monday night.

With just three meetings left before the November election and the seating of a new town council, some members of the panel said the next council should decide if an advisory committee is necessary.

Hilton countered that an advisory committee’s work would likely take some time, and the next council could accept or reject any proposed amendments.

There is just one budget on this year’s FTR so there is no choice for voters but to accept it, as there is no way to vote “no” for a budget. In years past, there have been alternate budgets on the ballot submitted by electors and voters decide which one to vote yes on.

Spending $13,000 to $15,000 to conduct the FTR polling that will take place three days before the FTR at Town Hall and the day of the FTR on Sept. 26 at the high school doesn’t make sense “when we know we’re in a fiscal crunch,” Hilton said.

Hilton said there have been 12 lawsuits and town charter complaints associated with the FTR process since it replaced the financial town meeting in 2012.

“It’s time to work on long-promised tweaks,” said Hilton, suggesting an advisory committee could look at the processes and best practices of the 14 other communities in the state that have FTRs.

The tweaking should be left to the next Town Council, said Councilwoman Nancy Driggs, who was a co-chair with Jeff Caron of the advisory committee that came up with the FTR language Tiverton adopted nearly a decade ago. She was also a member of the Charter Review Commission that suggested eight amendments to the FTR, but not one was put on the 2018 ballot by the Town Council at that time.

“I want to put the brakes on this suggestion right now,” said Driggs. “There is no reason to hastily go forward with this proposal for this committee,” she said.

Councilman John Edwards V said he thought a committee was a good idea, though the timing “is less than perfect.”

“The way our FTR is structured is not the most perfect form of government,” said Edwards, and changes need to be made. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

It’s unfair to the next council to pass something like this now, Councilwoman Donna Cook said.

Council Vice President Denise deMedeiros agreed with Cook.

“It’s a great idea,” deMedeiros said of Hilton’s proposal, “but it needs to wait to the next council.”

The FTR process “is a really taxing process,” Town Clerk Nancy Mello said, adding “there are things in there that make absolutely no sense. There are parts in there you couldn’t physically do if you wanted to,” she said of meeting deadlines for a runoff election if more than two budgets are on the ballot and neither one garners a majority of the votes.

“It is long past the time to tweak it,” Mello said.

The vote was tied with Hilton, Edwards and Stephen Clarke voting in favor of the advisory committee and Driggs, Cook and deMedeiros voting against. Joseph Perry did not take part in the meeting.