The Republic of Brookline

Friday, July 22, 2011

Selectman Clarence Farwell made an interesting point when he defended his board’s decision to make Police Chief William Quigley III full time without seeking public input first. Farwell said, as quoted by The Telegraph’s Albert McKeon:

“We’re appointed to be leaders of the town. It’s time to make a decision.”

Exactly right, if you view the town as a republic rather than a democracy, and we do. Sort of. You see, Brookline still operates under the Town Meeting form of government, so many decisions are made by the voters at Town Meeting, a clear indication that it is a democracy. But many other decisions are made by the selectmen, or for that matter the School Board, without a vote by members of the public, and that is how a republic works.

So, what is Brookline?

Both, obviously. Not every decision can be postponed until Town Meeting in March and clearly three members of the Board of Selectmen viewed this as one of them. Agree or disagree, they had the right to make that decision and they did.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that it can’t be revisited at Town Meeting, perhaps with a petition warrant article. That is the right of the people operating under a democratic form of government, which Brookline is, at least in March. The rest of the year, it is a republic.

Oh, you’re right, we are being just so picky but it is a fascinating concept that is faced by many towns, even those that operate under Senate Bill 2. They no longer have a traditional town meeting but voters still make many, and often the most important, decisions at the polls. So in March, Milford, for instance, operates as a democracy; the rest of the year as a republic.

But that doesn’t take away from what Farwell said. He was absolutely right in that many decisions have to be made sooner rather than later and that is why we elect selectmen and School Board members. They represent us and when they make decisions, they make them in our name.

But ... We do not believe that elected officials should vote based upon what they think we want. They should vote, as we believe Farwell did, based upon what they believe to be right, whether we agree or not. That is the definition of political courage, mostly lacking in our elected officials.

Given what seems to be the climate of Brookline surrounding Chief Quigley and the selectmen, the vote by Farwell and Selectmen Jack Flanagan and Tad Putney took some courage, we believe. In this republic of Brookline, they did what they believed to be right and will face the consequences later, if there are any. And if there are any, they will come in March when Brookline turns again to pure democracy for a bit of time.

It seems like a weird system, but it beats the heck out of a mayor and council form of government, where pure democracy doesn’t exist, and it’s a lot of fun, too.