I am asking that you would please support Article 28 at the annual Town Meeting [on April 5]. This article would preserve the rights of citizens to speak at all precinct caucuses and foster debate unimpeded by the precinct chairs. Precinct chairs are not “speakers of the house” positions but rather positions to help facilitate caucus meetings. They are one-ninth of the caucus. No greater power than what the caucus grants them.
During the much contentious debate on Article 16c (Redbrook senior housing) last year there was an attempt to limit debate in Precinct 17 [in] the final weeks leading up to the 2024 Plymouth Town Meeting. Public comment was removed last February for the first time and, to date, never restored. I have made repeated requests to precinct chair Joseph Hutchinson to restore public comment but have been ignored. I even made a request for the Plymouth town clerk to add public comment to our agenda and she did. But Mr. Hutchinson had it removed. This kind of abuse of authority is dangerous and especially with article 16c. During those final weeks leading up to our 2024 Town Meeting new information was available. It was revealed that if Article 16c did not pass, our precinct would have more apartments at that location rather than much needed senior subsidized housing at Redbrook. Such bad and uninformed behavior by our chair was wrong. Please support article 28 to assure this does not happen again. All authority of the government comes from its people.
– Al DiNardo