What's Open, and What's Involved?
Some positions have one year terms, some three or
four. You get the job in most instances if you show some interest.
No long interview process is involved.
Learn what you can by reading the town report closely.
What positions are going to be vacant this year? If you are going
to seek elective office, you should get your petitions ready for submission
at least forty days before town meeting. Most appointments are made
in the weeks following town meeting, so it won't hurt to talk to a few
people at town meeting about your interest. Some towns advertise for candidates
in the newspaper, but others just look around for people to take a job
after the incumbent retires or resigns.
Running for local office is not like running for
the legislature. You do need to collect signatures and get the petition
to the clerk on time, if the town votes by Australian ballot for officers.
For a traditional floor meeting election, you talk to a few people about
your willingness to have your name put up for nomination and to support
you. You don't need paid political ads or volunteers handing out
fliers.
There are few contests in local elective office.
In many towns, incumbents are reelected without challenge, as long as they
are doing a decent job at it. People are comfortable with what they
know. That's not particularly bad for a community, but still, in
a democracy, there ought to be choices in elections. Don't be put
off from running for an office against an incumbent. A contest is
good for everybody. Running and losing is no disgrace, and often
a loss this year translates into a win next time.
Getting elected or appointed to an office isn't
hard. Deciding what office to seek and learning what is entailed
are the next steps you need to take.
There are over 5,000 local offices to be filled by election or appointment
in the 237 towns, nine cities, 45 villages, more than a hundred fire districts,
and the varieties of regional government from regional planning commissions
to solid waste districts in Vermont.
There are thirty to forty positions available in
each town. Knowing as much as you can about the offices helps guide
you to the one best suited for you. Let's review a few of the basic
offices:
Selectboard.
Selectboards have either three or five members,
elected for one, two, or three year terms. They are responsible for
the basic administration of the town. They take care of the roads,
make appointments to other boards and commissions, and authorize expenditures
of voted budgets. They act by majority rule, with a chair to run
the meeting. They are bound as all local boards are to the open meeting
and public records laws. Everything they do is done in the open for
all to see.
The sheer variety of questions that come before
a selectboard makes it one of the most interesting local offices.
One week it's a neighbor who can't sleep because of a barking dog, the
next it's a decision on whether to add a new highway to the town or trade
in the plow truck. The selectboard is the body you turn to when there's
no one else to help. Sometimes it can help. The board's powers
are limited to what the legislature allows it to do, but those are considerable
in the realm of highways, water and sewer, and fire and police.
In most towns, there are rules about how you can
develop your property. They come in a variety of forms--zoning bylaws,
subdivision regulations, the town plan--and their purpose is to promote
sensible community design, so that commercial and residential development
are integrated properly, and people don't irritate each other too much
by building something that offends their neighbors.
These rules need people to administer them.
These include the zoning administrator to issue permits or make initial
decisions, planning commissions to write the plan and bylaws and conduct
site inspections, and zoning boards, to hear appeals from the zoning administrator
and grant variances and conditional use permits. All are appointive
offices, serving terms of three or four years however some towns elect
planning commissioners.
Serving on the zoning board or planning commission
is akin to being a local land use court. Most meetings are public
hearings on proposed development. You hear testimony from those promoting
and opposing the permit and then decide, using the law as your guide, whether
to allow it or not, and if to allow--which is most often the case--to name
the conditions on the development. There are fascinating questions
that arise when public and private interests collide. The front line is
the public hearing hosted by the board or commission.
The Listers and the Board of Civil Authority
Your dwelling and the land you own are appraised
by the town and form the basis for determining how much you must pay in
property taxes. The listers establish the grand list for each property
in town. If a taxpayer is unhappy with what they've done there is
a local appeal to the board of civil authority. That board consists
of the town clerk, selectboard, and the justices of the peace.
You could run for justice of the peace. It
is an office filled at the General Election, with a term of two years.
Nomination is by political party or an independent petition, which has
to be filed with the town clerk at least eight weeks before the November
election. The powers of the office include the authority to perform
marriages, work in elections, and tax appeals.
Determining the value of something is a tough business.
For a lister, the process involves learning a reasonable and rational method
of appraisal and applying it to various properties. For a member
of the board of civil authority, the challenge is deciding whether the
listers or the taxpayers are correct in what each thinks is the proper
value. The process can be intriguing.
You have come to cherish the local library.
Your children visit it often, and you can see that it could benefit from
a little more attention from the community. Consider serving on the
library board. Once or twice a month you'll meet with the librarian
at the library. You'll review the budget and establish basic policies,
and work to improve the library.
Three or five members of the school board serve as
a legislative body for the school district. They negotiate teachers'
contracts, write the school budget, and set policies on everything from
student discipline to class trips.
Serving on a school board is hard but rewarding
work. You can see the impact of your decisions on the school and
the students. Come annual meeting time, you have to defend the budget
and the school. Standing up for the schools is the job.
The town clerk and the treasurer are elective offices.
The clerk keeps the records of birth, marriage, and death, the land records,
and runs elections. The treasurer keeps the financial records of
the town and collects current property taxes. Often both positions
are held by the same person.
Having a good town clerk can make all the difference to a town.
Good town clerks are the glue that holds the town together, regularly mediating
between warring factions and helping everyone, officer and citizen alike,
find their way through the maze of local government.
Some Vermont clerks have served for more than fifty
years. Others stay only a few years before moving on to something
else. Clerks and treasurers need good office skills, the patience
to handle detail, and the diplomacy to keep everybody comfortable.
There isn't room here to name all of the other offices, but let's name a few more. The auditors are responsible for editing and reviewing the final draft of the town report before it goes out. They also are responsible for reviewing the town's fiinancial records. Some towns have conservation commissions, recreation boards, and cemetary commissions. Everyone has a collector of delinquent taxes, town agent, town grand juror, and tree warden. Each position has a little law to go with it, and a special responsibility to the citizens to do the job right.
That's the beauty of democracy: everybody has an equal chance at
being a ruler, in a limited sphere of influence, with an established body
of law to guide you, dedicated to one universal proposition that every
person has a right to be treated fairly by a body of fellow citizens.
You need to learn what the job is first before doing
it, like anything you do. Most of the training is on the job, watching
others do it, but there are opportunities for seminars and workshops available
at regular seasons throughout the year from a host of organizations.
Usually there is a modest charge; often the town will pay for it.
At these sessions, you will discover something quite
amazing. You will meet other people from other towns who hold your
office. You will hear speakers talk about the law, participate in
mock hearings, and have an opportunity to ask questions about how the process
should work.
It doesn't matter how far you went in school or what you do for work.
You don't have to seek out these programs.
Fliers will come to you as soon as you take office, from the Vermont League
of Cities and Towns, the Vermont Association of Listers and Assessors,
the Vermont Clerks and Treasurers Association, The Vermont Institute for
Government, and a host of other organizations dedicated to serving the
needs of specific public offices. You can read books and pamphlets
about the office and borrow video tapes of presentations from seminars
you couldn't attend.
There is no substitute for a good lecture with a
live audience of fellow officers. Hearing someone from another town ask
about a problem you've encountered and couldn't solve is so important.
The most important discovery we make and remake in life is learning we
aren't alone. Our fear is not unique. Our lack of confidence
and confusion is shared by others in similar circumstances. That's
what makes education so important for everyone, and it works. It
does change you.
Don't worry about what you don't know in deciding
to stand for election or appointment to a local office. You will
learn what you need to know soon enough. It's not hard. Others
will show you how.
We may not feel like members of the federal or state governments,
but local government is a different manner. It is us, and if we don't
do, who will?
Nobody can talk you into serving in local office,
but there may come a time when somebody asks you if you'll serve.
Don't say no without thinking about the idea. Promise yourself you
will serve only a term, and then decide whether you like it. You
don't have to spend your whole life in local public office or in a single
office.
Think of it as giving something back to the town.
Vermonters get mighty sentimental about their towns, as well they should.
These units of government have the hardest job of all, making ends meet
with limited resources, keeping you safe in your home and the roads clear
in winter.
Seven Bad Excuses For Not Serving in Local Office
1. I can't make a difference.
2. It's just a waste of my time to try. Nobody would want me.
3. Local government is small potatoes. What it does is not important.
4. I wasn't born here.
5. It's all so boring.
6. I don't have enough experience.
7. It really needs younger [older] people.
You may not change the world. You won't become
a celebrity. You may see yourself on television or in the newspaper,
but that isn't the equivalent of fame. You'll just do your work,
and feel good about it at the end of the evening. That will be the
reward.
That will suffice. It will be your duty.
It's your town. It's your turn.
A Word about The Vermont Institute for Government
The Vermont Institute for Government (VIG) is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to improving educational opportunities for local officials and the public on how government works. It consists of representatives from each of the major groups in Vermont that offer such training.
The VIG has published other pamphlets that may be of use or interest
to you. They include:
The Meeting Will Come to Order, covering town meeting procedures.
Changing the World, about how to increase your effectiveness in meetings
of local and state boards and commissions.
Are You Appealing?, which covers the tax grievance and appeal processes
at the local level.
Isn't This My Land?, relating to local planning and zoning.
The Vermont Citizenship Comprehensive Examination, a fun test of basic
information a citizen ought to know about Vermont government.
The Public Right of Way and You, covering town highways.
How and Why to Read a Town Report, it can tell you a great deal about
your town.
Reforming Local Government by Charter, how to cha;nge your local government.
Contact the VIG office for free copies of any of these pamphlets or
to learn more about VIG.
Vermont Institute for Government
R.R. 4, Box 2298
Montpelier, Vermont 05602
223-6500