On 3/11/2025 voters in Londonderry will have the final say on Town and School Budgets, a number of Warrant Articles, and several Citizens Petitions. Prior to the 3/11/2025 the Town and School will hold Deliberative Session on 2/7//2025 and 2/8/2025 where all of the above can be questioned and amended. The results of those sessions will then be voted on at the 3/11/2025 elections.
This year there are a number of CBA’s (Collective Bargaining Agreements) also known as union contracts on the docket. On example of what will may appear on the final ballot is below:

What exactly does Article 18 refer to? Needless to say it is probably is not clear to everyone who may vote on 3/11/2025.
Let’s look at the process of how we got to where we are today.
The Unions and Town held a number of meeting to negotiate either a new contract or amend an existing contract. All contracts now have a term of 3 years. These meetings or ‘non-meetings’ as they are referred to are not open to the public. Once the two parties agree to a mutually acceptable contract the contract must be approved by the Town Council. Approval of the Council only moves the contract forward closer to the final vote by voters on 3/11/2025.
The Council held a special Tuesday meeting to approve all 5 contracts. During the meeting a summary of all CBA’s was presented. There was no public comment allowed at the meeting. The end result of the meetings was all 5 CBA’s were moved to an upcoming Town Council meeting, for further review.
On 1/20/2025 the Town Council held a regular meeting which the only ballot items listed on the agenda were ‘Public Hearing on FY 26 Budget’ there was no mention of a discussion on Warrant Articles or Citizens Petitions. At the 1/20 meeting it was noted early in the meeting that the Coucil must take a position on each warrant article that has a budgetary impact. Clearly all CBA’s had an impact, the council voted to move all CBA’s to the Deliberative Session on 2/8/2025. Several residents asked a number of question on the CBA’s. Councilors also implied that they could not could not release the contracts. The Chair of the Budget Committee also asked for information on the CBA’s and seemed unaware of the Councils special meeting.
On 1/21/2025 I sent an email to the Town Council asking when the CBA’s would be released. I assumed they would be available before the Deliberative Session to review the details before being asked to vote on them. The Council did not respond to the email.
On 1/21/2025 the Budget Committee held a meeting to discuss all Town and School Budgets, Warrant Articles, and Citizens Petitions.
Since I did not receive a response from the Town Council I attended the meeting in hopes of getting additional information. At the Budget Committee meeting I asked if the committee had reviewed the contracts. The chair stated that they were only sent a summary by town staff that day and did not review the actual contracts. My response was how do you vote for or against an article if you have not seen the details. Later in the meeting it was stated that the Town Attorney has advised that contract not be released until approved by the voters. In other words voters cannot review the details of what they are voting on until AFTER voting concludes on 3/11/2025. For those attending the Deliberative Session they can only ask questions, which may, or may not, be answered depending on the advise of town legal staff. For those that do not attend Deliberative they only have a short description with the bottom line budget amount listed.
The question is why can’t voters review a contract, which has been completed and agreed to by both side before voting on it.
As the say in Washington DC, you can’t read the Bill until you Pass the Bill. I do not find that acceptable.