July 8th, Marbleheaders kicked 3A to the curb for the third and final time when John DiPiano’s Hail Mary referendum went to vote in a special election.
After another marathon town meeting, a four-nighter this year. The bonus night was courtesy of our town officials’ inability (read: arrogance or perhaps, accidentally on purpose) to read the room and accommodate the 2,220 citizens who turned out to have their say. Then there was the problem with the clickers. You had all weekend to test the system, and now you find out it’s not working?! Ok, I don’t believe that for one second. The back-up plan was to give the voters a tiny slip of pink paper to raise when they vote. Apparently, there would be counters scanning the aisles, the crowd in the auxiliary room, and the folks lined up along the walls. No room for error there. Had the meeting not been canceled due to crowd size, this would have been an excellent fail-safe.
After hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic, guerrilla parking, and traipsing to the mobbed check-in, the meeting was canceled and rescheduled for the following night at Marblehead High’s field house. About a third of the crowd was peeled off when the meeting was carried over to the following night. It’s not a quantum leap to see how this works when our town officials are in the tank for the passage of 3A. Case in point: Last year, when 3A was Article 36, smack dab in the middle of the warrant, the meeting was continued to the next night. Sure enough, the crowd was thinner, yet we prevailed. After the 3A-no-way single-issue voters left, the sleazebags at the helm put it up for another vote. There, but for the grace of God and a few sentient Liberals who were disgusted at the outright cheating afoot, we prevailed.
Back to 2025: No law states that an article defeated in a town meeting can’t appear on subsequent years’ warrants. Hence, the May 6/7th debacle. Unsurprisingly, we lost about a third of the previous night’s crowd by bumping the meeting to the next night. It took about an hour to get in, and, as it was pouring rain, more folks peeled off the line that snaked down to Humphrey Street. Once everyone was in, it took an hour and a half getting the clickers to work (again with the clickers!) and VERBALLY CHANGING THE TEXT of Article 52 (3A), which was the first to be addressed. I am not making this up. The verbiage was changed live – no big screen to read, just Jack Attridge explaining the changes! Not confusing at all. What a scam!
Unsurprisingly, the pros prevailed, and we lost the vote. That was the plan, right? Not so fast on the happy dance, 3Aers. Thanks to John DiPiano’s prudence, his referendum signature drive gained momentum, and a special election was scheduled for July 8th. Tim Swiger, Marblehead’s lawn sign expert and next year’s new planning board member, created dozens more signs and rescued me from my struggle creating a door hanger. Eight thousand door hangers were distributed in the sweltering heat of the Fourth of July weekend through Monday, the 7th. What a gang of troopers! Creative (and somewhat confusing) early voting, day-of, and polling locations were offered for the first referendum vote in Marblehead since 1954! Pretty darn cool.
Once again, Marbleheaders successfully channeled the 1960s battle cry of “Power to the People” and emerged victorious. 3A is toast. Developers cannot run roughshod over our town, so we live to fight another day. And it won’t be easy. We are still subject to the repressive 40B zoning regulations, which threaten the sovereignty of homeowners, working-class landlords, and small business owners. Here is where the state metes out our punishment for denying developers our firstborn.* There’s more, plans are afoot to allow remote voting for town meetings.** Too many dedicated citizens showing up to save their town makes it difficult to control outcomes. Oh boy, brace yourselves, folks.
Laura Tamagno
July, 2025
*Enforcement of Zoning and Land Use Laws
https://www.mma.org/mmla-to-hold-program-on-code-enforcement-on-aug-7-/
*Bill H.2274: Remote Voting
Massachusetts First 
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