Robin Schulman, whose Citizens’ Petition: Prohibit Use of Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides on Town Property passed with a show of hands at Town Meeting, said, “A Citizen’s Petition is a miracle of democracy.  It was a lot of work, I was spending 30 hours a week to get this done, and lots of states don’t have any process for individuals to present their ideas to the community.  Maynard has the potential to be a very progressive community for the environment and this was a big deal for democracy.”

The process is involved but our Town website has step-by-step instructions on what needs to happen to move a petition to Town Meeting.  Warrants can be initiated by either our town administration or by citizen petitions, although citizen petitions require 10 voter signatures (Robin had 300) to be submitted for Town Meeting.

While a citizen’s petition isn’t required to be reviewed by legal counsel, Robin thought it prudent to ensure the legality of her petition.  She also checked in with the Board of Conservation and the Board of Health.  Petitions have to be submitted to the Board of Selectmen at least 60 days prior to Town Meeting.  The Board checks that the petition is complete and sends it to the Town Clerk to certify the signatures and then it goes to Town Meeting. 

Local historian Bill Cranshaw said, “10 years ago we’d usually get a citizens petition most every year but many of them failed on technicalities or were deemed “advisory” so were effectively meaningless. Back then someone who did a citizens petition did not get any help from the town on doing it so they didn’t find out they did it wrong until Town Counsel said so at Town Meeting. That probably accounted for a few years that followed with no citizen’s petitions. 

“But the Town Clerk’s office and Town Moderator have been more helpful in the past couple of years and we’re getting more of them. Still have some issues with “advisory” vs. legally binding, so sometimes the petitioner knows to pull the article instead of moving it.  One other thing on the success rate – it matters a lot if the action requires a secret ballot or hand vote. Any article, citizen’s petition or not, is extremely likely to pass on a hand vote.”