October 3, 2022 - Meeting Summary and Next Steps
To all Stand Up for Norwich Supporters,
Thank you to those who were able to join on Monday and we appreciate the growing support for our movement to reestablish safety and services in Norwich. Our group has grown exponentially since just a few weeks ago and we’re working diligently to be transparent and timely with our communication. If anyone is interested in helping out, please let us know. There’s been a lot of interest in the working groups we laid out in our last meeting notes. We actually touched on most of the topics this past Monday and have summarized those discussion points and action items here.
For reference, our meeting agenda is available here:
https://www.standupfornorwich.org/key-dates/2022-10-03-mtg-agenda
Transparency
We shared our notes from the last Selectboard meeting and provided an update during the October 3rd SUFN meeting. Notes from the Selectboard meeting are available here: https://www.standupfornorwich.org/communications/92822-select-board-meeting-summary
If you’re interested in helping take notes for Selectboard meetings, please let us know.
Recruitment
We started the meeting by brainstorming ways we can better support our remaining town employees. Ideas that we can all easily contribute to include posting regularly on the ListServ and joining Selectboard meetings to make public comments. We are, of course, concerned about Officer Ingraham given the workload she has been shouldering all summer and now into fall. Other town employees are operating in the same environment that has led to over a dozen employees leaving in the last year. If you’ve had a good interaction with a town employee, please let them know and share it broadly with the town.
Support
We’re going to be launching a town wide support email list with an optional phone number to transcribe messages and send them to the list. We discussed how the neighborhood lists and Neighborhood Captain structures can be called to action in the case of local needs such as plowing or deliveries. If you have ideas on how to provide neighborhood support or have a truck, with or without a plow, and can join the list, please let us know.
Educating
Town Budget and Use of Funds: We spent quite some time discussing budgeting and use of funds. In the very short term, we need to collectively keep a watchful eye on how the Selectboard prepares the budget for next year. We are all concerned that with diminished services and the accompanying surplus (because the town isn’t paying for the services we aren’t getting) that the board will try to slash the budget for next year. We need to make our voices heard loud and clear during budget season that we expect the services we voted for last year to be restored and the budget maintained to support the level of services that this town has benefited from for the past decades. We had some discussion about the current use of funds and whether the Selectboard has been taking liberties with the large surplus at the end of last year and are sure to have this coming year. If you have experience and interest in auditing or want to help with a review of how funds are required to be approved by voters and allocated, let us know. Please make time to write to the Selectboard and to the Town Manager, to attend the budget meetings, to write to the ListServ about the budget, and in the worst case scenario, to vote down a budget in March if it doesn’t stand up to our expectations.
Selectboard “Boot Camp”: The second education action item coming out of our meeting is the creation of a “boot camp” for Selectboard members. If you have experience on the Selectboard or a committee, we would appreciate your help pulling together the material to help any town citizen quickly come up to speed on how our town works. If you’re interested in running for Selectboard or volunteering for a committee, now or in the future, please let us know and you’ll be the first to review the materials and give us feedback.
Final Notes
As momentum grows to hold our town government accountable to the priorities that we voted for, there’s been some accusations of bullying or disrespect of the volunteers who serve on the Selectboard. We know there’s a lot of concern (rightfully so) and some anger at the situation we’re in. We encourage everyone to continue to speak respectfully, while we justifiably hold our elected officials accountable for their actions ,or lack thereof.
Important Dates
Monday, November 7, 2022 - SUFN Monthly Meeting
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - Vermont General Election Day
Monday, December 5, 2022 - SUFN Monthly Meeting
Monday, January 2, 2022 - SUFN Monthly Meeting
Thursday, January 19, 2023 - (Not less than 47 days before town meeting) Last day to file petitions with town clerk signed by at least 5 percent of the voters for articles to be included in town meeting warning.
Monday, February 6, 2023 - SUFN Monthly Meeting
Monday, March 1, 2023 - SUFN Monthly Meeting
Monday, March 6, 2023 - Norwich Town Meeting Day - A meeting of the legal voters of each town shall be held annually on the first Tuesday in March, unless the town charter changes the date or the voters have voted to begin on one of the 3 days preceding that Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - Norwich Voting Day
Get in touch with us at joinus@standupfornorwich.org