Needed: Better Citizen Participation

To the Editor:

Newtown’s budget faces some serious upcoming challenges. With shrinking tax revenues due to reduced property valuations and other reduced funding sources, Newtown will have to balance costs and services by making difficult decisions. I propose that this unique period of time is also the time to take a hard look at all the fundamentals of our town governing practices, and revise them in order to return to the basics that I believe government should be built and function on. I believe the principles of governance that the IPN party embraces (Accountability, Checks and Balances, Transparency) provide the foundation for the citizens of Newtown to actively participate in effecting those changes.

I believe that citizen participation is one of the fundamentals of good governance. The processes which Newtown currently employs in order to raise, analyze, discuss, and vote on issues are antiquated, and ineffective in encouraging voter participation.

My experience as a member of the Charter Review Commission last fall showed me some reasons why the voters of Newtown feel disenfranchised. As a member of the commission, I advocated to split the budget into its two components, and allow the voters to voice their opinion, through vote and advisory questions, on the town services and education budgets. The vote to split the budget and add advisory questions failed, I believe, not because people weren’t interested, but because the process to effect a change to the charter is too bureaucratic, political, cumbersome, and ineffective.

For example, the first step in the charter review process, the selection of the Charter Review Commission members, is flawed: it reflects the political makeup of the Legislative Council, thus ensuring that the commission is politically aligned, and also preordains an outcome that is politically driven. The spirit of improvement and change for the better is lost before the process even begins.

Another area of improvement is the participation in or viewing of public meetings by the citizens. I believe Newtown must look into utilizing electronic online meeting tools to allow easier participation by the voters. In this busy world, I think it is unnecessary to make physical presence at a meeting a requirement in order to participate or view.

I also believe it is time to utilize similar electronic means to enhance the voting process. Again, the requirement to physically visit a polling place (or pick up an absentee ballot), during the week, in order to vote makes little sense when technology allows a myriad of types of participation from remote locations.

The explosion of social media over the past years shows us that people want to, and can, participate. By depoliticizing processes and making participation easier, we can bring back the voters, and enable their involvement in decisionmaking.

Bob Duero

Independent Party of Newtown

Legislative Council District 3 candidate

14 Saddle Ridge Road, Newtown                              October 26, 2011