Town Meeting in General

As stated in the "Citizens Guide to Town Meetings" published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth (this is a wonderful source; there's a link at the end of this material), "Town Meeting" is both an event and an entity . As an event, "Town Meeting" is the gathering of the town's voters, which takes place (i) in May, at the "annual" Town Meeting; and (ii) at other times of the year, when a "special" Town Meeting is called (there is more information on this web page on how a special Town Meeting is called). As an entity, "Town Meeting" is the town's "legislature" - similar to Congress, a City Council, or the "General Court", the Massachusetts state legislature. Unlike those entities, however, in an "open" Town Meeting (which is what we have in East Longmeadow ), the citizens govern the Town directly, not through representatives. That means each registered voter acts as a "legislator" when he or she participates in Town Meeting.

As the "legislature", Town Meeting sets the Town's budget, appropriates funds, and enacts the laws which govern the Town, called "by-laws". Obviously, these are critical functions.

The Selectmen are the Town's executive body -- they oversee and implement the by-laws and the day-to-day operation of the Town's business. In other words, the Selectmen don't control the budget; rather, the voters who attend Town Meeting establish the Town's budget, based upon recommendations from the Appropriations Committee.

The Selectmen also prepare the "warrant", which is an "agenda" of all the articles which are to be taken up, considered and decided upon at Town Meeting. No action can be taken at a Town Meeting (whether annual or special) unless it is the subject (or within the "scope") of a warrant article. The warrant article provides notice, not action -- a motion is made under the article which proposes the action to be taken. The motion must be within the scope of the notice provided by the article, or the Moderator will rule it out of order. An article may not be amended, but a motion may be amended.

Voters may also add articles to the warrant, but this must be done before it is issued by the Selectmen. To insert an article into the warrant for an Annual Town Meeting, at least 10 registered voters of the town must sign a written request, and the request must be filed by January 15 th . If you are interested in adding an article to the warrant, you should see the Town Clerk for samples and instructions. To insert an article for a Special Town Meeting, 100 registered East Longmeadow voters' signatures are required.

The warrant is made available prior to the town meeting (at least 7 days before an annual town meeting, and 14 days for a special town meeting). The purpose is to "warn" residents of the matters which will come up for discussion and vote at the Town Meeting. The warrant is available at Town Hall and is normally published in The Reminder .

Generally, a Moderator's job is to run the Town Meeting. Specifically, the Moderator declares the outcome of all voice votes. Moderators are elected at the Town Election. The term of office is three years. When the elected Moderator is absent, a temporary Moderator may be elected at the Town Meeting. The Moderator may also appoint a "Deputy Moderator" to help in the running of the Town Meeting.