At the Dec. 16 Londonderry Town Council meeting, during the public input portion, a concern was raised in regards to various citizens petition warrant articles that were voted on last March, but had never been acted on.
The various citizens petition warrant articles had overwhelming support by voters in the community, despite being amended to be advisory warrant articles, meaning there is no obligation for the Town to implement them.
Resident Glenn Douglas explained that one of the warrant articles was to change the Planning Board from an appointed Board to an elected one. The warrant article had 2,686 voters in support and 1,430 voters against it.
Another warrant article was to have public input at both the beginning and at the end of any public meeting for the Town’s committees, and boards.
Douglas noted that not everyone is doing that, despite the warrant article passing 3,085 to 1,077.
As of several months later, three boards have complied with what was advisory, six boards have one public comment session, and 13 boards or committees have absolutely no public comment, Douglas said during the meeting.
Warrant Article 19 asked voters if they supported having public meetings at a time best for the general population which voters supported 3,125 to 1,017.
Warrant Article 20 asked voters if they supported having all public boards and committee meetings recorded for the Town.
Douglas noted that not every board and committee are recording the meetings as of now.
“We are doing much, much better on this but there are still meetings that are not being recorded or in one case the microphones were shut off so the meeting was recorded but it didn’t really do much” Douglas said during the meeting.
Warrant Article 22 asked voters if they supported making the Budget Committee no longer an advisory committee.
Voters supported the warrant article on a 2,427 to 1,621 vote.
Douglas explained that the deadline to submit warrant articles is coming up.
“We’re coming up to the deadline to do citizens petitions,” Douglas said, explaining that he sent an email to the Town Council on Dec. 4, asking if they were going to be moving forward with any of the citizens petition warrant articles that had passed during the 2024 election.
Douglas said that he didn’t receive a response from any of the Town Councilors, and said that there has been almost nothing done in terms of the warrant articles.
“A lot of people voted for this stuff, and really nothing has happened,” Douglas said.