RTM Will Review Bipartisan Seating

The leadership of the will review a change in the seating of the full RTM.

The proposal, submitted to the RTM by representative Ray Ingraham (R), seeks .  At present, the Democrats sit on the left side of the room while the Republicans are seated at a table facing them at the right side of the room.   

Most likely, the new arrangement would seat them by district.

The Rules and Ordinances Committee voted on Tuesday to ask the RTM leadership to review the proposed seating change. The .

“We’ll hash it out,” said Republican representative Dennis Flanagan before the meeting got underway. 

“I think it’s a good idea,” Flanagan, who serves as the clerk for the RTM,  continued, “because of the fact that it’s a town government system here.”

Flanagan said that he had heard from representatives from both parties that they are willing to give the new seating arrangement a try.

“We thought that people would be interested to see who their representatives are if we set it up by district.  I think it will go forward,” he said.

Democratic member Douglas Hanlon also found the proposed seating arrangement sound. 

“We should be willing to try anything that makes the room seem less polarizing,” Hanlon said. 

He compared the current system within the RTM to the State of the Union addresses in the U.S. Congress, where Democrats stand and applaud as one block and the Republicans also react along party lines.

Hanlon said that seating the RTM members by district may require the RTM to take recesses on important issues when representatives might wish to confer with their colleagues.

“There’s really nothing written in stone,” Hanlon said of how the RTM is seated. 

“We should try it,” he said. 

As if to underscore his point, some members crossed the room on Wednesday night to sit with members of the opposite party, and Hanlon was among them. 

“You’re on the right,” one member joked, as Hanlon settled in for the duration of the meeting at what is normally the Republican table. 

Earlier in the day, Selectman and former RTM member endorsed the new seating arrangement.  He said seating the RTM members by district would bring a new level of accountability to the RTM members.

The RTM members, Cosgrove said, should represent the best interests of their districts and of the town.