[Adopted as Art. II of the General Bylaws]
[Amended 4-6-2010 ATM
by Art. 6]
The Warrant for each Annual Town Meeting shall be closed January
31 preceding the Annual Town Meeting in each year. No article, including
articles consisting of resolutions, shall be taken up at Town Meeting
unless it appears in the printed warrant. The preceding sentence shall
not apply to resolutions memorializing townspeople and Town employees.
Except as hereinafter specified, the Warrant for any Special Town
Meeting shall be closed at least 25 days prior to the scheduled date
of the meeting; provided, further, that there shall be at least 10
days between the call of any Special Town Meeting and the closing
of the Warrant therefor. This section shall not apply to any Special
Town Meeting held for the purpose of considering the approval or disapproval
of an amount of debt authorized by a regional district school committee,
in accordance with MGL c. 71, § 16(d), or held for an emergency
purpose.
Except for the election of Town officers, no meeting shall be
legal unless a quorum is present, and a quorum shall consist of 100
registered voters; once a quorum has been assembled, the continued
existence of a quorum shall be presumed until a count of the voters
present, which shall be taken upon the call of seven or more registered
voters, establishes that a quorum is not present.
The Moderator shall, at the time and place appointed, call the
meeting to order, and forthwith proceed to read the call for the meeting,
and the return of the person or persons who served it.
The powers and duties of the presiding officer, not especially
provided for by law or by these bylaws, shall be determined by the
rules and practices contained in the most recent edition of Town Meeting
Time, so far as they are adapted to the conditions and powers of the
Town.
The Moderator while presiding over a Town Meeting shall not
participate in the discussion of any matter under consideration of
the said Town meeting, but they may upon request answer all questions
relating to procedure in Town meetings as may be submitted to them
and to correct any errors of procedure which may occur.
Every person speaking shall address the Chair standing and uncovered.
No person not a voter shall address the meeting without first obtaining
consent of the meeting.
Every nonresident appointed representative of the Town shall
be a nonvoting member of Town Meeting.
No article in the Warrant for any Town Meeting shall be taken
up for consideration out of the order in which it appears therein,
except by a four-fifths vote of the voters present and voting thereat.
All motions shall be reduced to writing before being submitted
to the meeting, if required by the presiding officer or Clerk.
When an article comes before any session of the Town Meeting,
the proponent(s) shall be recognized first for the purpose of making
a motion under the article and then for making a presentation in support
thereof, if the motion is seconded. If the proponent is an elected
or appointed board or committee within which there is a minority position
in opposition to the article, a spokesperson for that position will
be recognized next. Thereafter, the Finance Committee shall be recognized
if it wishes to speak on the article, followed by the Planning Board
and/or any other Board or Committee which is required by law to report
on the article.
No person shall speak more than twice upon any question, except
to correct an error or make an explanation until all others who have
not spoken upon the question and desire to do so shall have an opportunity.
The initial presentation by the proponent(s) of an article may not
exceed 10 minutes in length, and no other speech may exceed five minutes
in length unless consent is given by a majority of those present and
voting.
When a question is under debate, motions may be received to
adjourn, to lay the matter on the table, to move the previous question,
to postpone indefinitely, to postpone to a time certain, to commit,
and to amend; which several motions shall have precedence in the order
in which they are herein enumerated, and the first three shall be
decided without debate, provided that the Moderator need not allow
a vote on a motion for the previous question unless, in their opinion,
there has been a reasonable opportunity for debate on the question.
[Amended 10-23-2023 STM
by Art. 2]
A motion to reconsider a matter previously acted upon at the
same session shall require an affirmative vote of 2/3 of those voters
present and voting. A motion to reconsider a matter after adjournment
of the session at which it was acted upon shall require a unanimous
vote of those present and voting unless written notice of an intention
to move reconsideration of the matter, signed by 15 voters who attended
that session, is given to the Town Clerk on or before 12:00 noon of
the next weekday (legal holidays excluded) following the session at
which the matter for which reconsideration is sought was acted upon.
The Town Clerk shall publish notice of such intention by advertisement
or by posting in their office or elsewhere in the Town Hall. The Moderator
shall at the start of the next session announce the matter on which
reconsideration is sought and shall further announce that the motion
for reconsideration shall be the first order of business at the next
succeeding session of the Town Meeting unless all business is completed
prior to 10:30 p.m. of the same session, in which case the motion
for reconsideration shall be the last item of business that evening.
When the matter to be reconsidered comes before the meeting, the Moderator
shall recognize for the motion the person who gave notice to the Town
Clerk, unless they shall defer to another. All discussion on the motion
must be confined exclusively to the merits or demerits of reconsideration.
Passage of a motion to reconsider shall require an affirmative vote
of 2/3 of those present and voting. If notice of reconsideration is
given on more than one matter, they shall be taken up in the order
in which they were submitted to the Town Clerk.
Every vote, resolution, amendment, order or other action of
the Town Meeting which instructs or requests any Town inhabitant,
official, committee or board to study, propose, prepare, draft, present,
file, petition for or otherwise initiate new legislation by the General
Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the Congress of the
United States shall specify in terms whether or not such inhabitant,
official, committee or board is required to present a draft of such
legislation to the Town Meeting for approval before submitting it
to said General Court or Congress.
If a legal error in an action of the Town Meeting, attested
to by the Town Counsel, is discovered, the Moderator shall, when presented
with such error, recognize the Town Counsel for the purpose of identifying
the error and explaining its effect. Following the explanation of
the Town Counsel, the Moderator shall request a motion by the Select
Board to correct the error. Such motion shall not be subject to the
rules of reconsideration and shall require a simple majority unless
otherwise mandated by state law or any portion of these bylaws. Action
under such motion shall be limited to correction of the error.
If the Town Accountant or, in their absence, the Assistant Town
Accountant discovers that information presented to the Town Meeting
contains an accounting error, they shall request to be recognized
for the purpose of identifying the error and explaining its effect.
The Moderator shall recognize the Town Accountant for such purpose.
Following the explanation, the Moderator shall request a motion by
the Select Board to correct the error. Such motion shall not be subject
to the rules of reconsideration and shall require a simple majority
unless otherwise mandated. Any voter or Town official who discovers
such an accounting error shall notify the Town Accountant, who, if
they concur, shall proceed as described above.
The Moderator may determine, without a count, that a two-thirds,
four-fifths, or nine-tenths vote has been achieved, which determination
shall satisfy the provisions of MGL c. 39, § 15, or any
other law requiring a two-thirds, four-fifths, or nine-tenths vote,
unless a count is requested in conformance with the procedural requirements
set forth in Town Meeting Time.
All persons speaking on any article may be recognized by the
Moderator after the presentation by the proponent(s) of the article,
if any, but no speaker may be recognized in accordance with any prearranged
speaking order. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event there
is no speaker identified as the proponent, the Moderator may recognize
speakers after the motion on the floor has been seconded.
[Added 5-2-2022 ATM by
Art. 25]
A. Voting.
When a question is put, the sense of the meeting shall be determined
by a vote held using voice votes, raised hands, a placard, an electronic
voting system or other voting indicia; the preference would be to
use an electronic voting system, if the same is available, for action
on main motions and any motion requiring more than a majority vote.
For purposes of this bylaw, the term "electronic voting technology"
shall mean any electronic voting system approved by the Town Clerk
and the Town Moderator which allows for the counting of votes using
a wireless or mobile device, including handheld clickers, mobile phone
application, or the like, as it may be decided from time to time.
B. Counting:
electronic voting. If the count is taken using electronic voting technology,
the Moderator shall declare the vote and provide an opportunity for
any voter to notify the Town Moderator that they believe their vote
was recorded in error; if so, the Moderator shall direct that the
record be corrected by the Town Clerk. If seven or more voters doubt
the vote, the Town Moderator may request another vote using the handheld
technology or otherwise set the manner of voting. If Town Meeting
approves a motion for reconsideration, the motion at issue immediately
prior to the vote will be back before the voters, and the electronic
voting system shall be used to record and tabulate the votes taken
on the main motion.
C. Counting:
other methods. If such electronic voting equipment is unavailable,
the Town Moderator shall notify the Town Meeting as to what manner
of voting will be used and, unless 20 people stand in opposition,
such method shall be implemented. If 20 voters do stand, then the
Moderator's recommendation is pending before the meeting, subject
to amendment like any other motion. If the Moderator is unable to
decide the vote or if the declaration by the Moderator is immediately
questioned by 10 or more voters rising in their places, the Moderator
shall then direct that a count be taken, whether by counting raised
hands, raised placards or other indicia of vote, or by secret ballot
or otherwise, as determined by the Moderator in the Moderator's sole
discretion.