CAMDEN – The process of deciding when to hold annual town meeting in Camden on June 9 has been under heavy conversation, and on Saturday, April 25, the Select Board will convene via Zoom.

The board will vote on whether to move the entire town meeting warrant to a secret ballot vote, and do away this year with annual open town meeting.

The board will vote whether to approve the proposed 2020-2021 budget, and then put it before the voters for a June, or later, vote.

The $5.9 million budget is down from the current $6.1 million, as presented by the town’s Budget Committee. (See attached PDF for the proposed budget).

The board will also vote on whether to even put the annual town meeting warrant before the voters on June 9, or wait until July 14, when the state primaries may be held. That date may also be a moving target, given the date of when the state resumes open business.

Which means that vote could move to later in July.

How any Camden vote takes place, whether in a voting booth or by mail or some other arrangement, remains to be seen, but the goal, according to Camden Select Board Chairman Bob Falciani, is to ensure that every voter feels secure, given the pandemic.

Blame COVID-19 for the entire issue. Camden’s charter lays out how and when the town holds its annual town meeting, which is its fundamental process to operating as a municipality. At town meeting, citizens decide, either in the voting booth or on the floor in open session, whom to install to what boards and committees, how much to pay town employees, what to spend money on, and various ordinance amendments and other stray pieces of business.

It could be, this year, that all the warrant articles get moved to the voting booth and secret ballot.

That’s all up for discussion tomorrow.