On February 28, 1799 the Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts incorporated the Second Parish of Woburn as a district town by the name of Burlington. Today Burlington, Massachusetts is governed by a compilation of Special Acts of the legislature; State laws and local bylaws, all of which combined, have the force of a charter.
That charter combines to form the basic unit of local government, which in New England is commonly known, as the town. The distinctive characteristic of town government is the town meeting in which are vested the traditional powers of the legislative branch, the power to make laws and the power of the purse. Better known as budgetary approval.
The traditional New England Town Meeting is open to all registered voters of a town. As towns grow bigger in population it is not uncommon for the voters to adopt a modified form called representative town meeting. Burlington did just that on August 4 1970 by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature. The voters of Burlington in a townwide referendum subsequently ratified this action on March 6, 1971.
The Burlington town meeting is a continuous one. The Main meeting is held in May and includes the budget for the next fiscal year as well as the primary issues facing the community. Additional meetings are held 120 days apart in September and January. The fall and winter meetings are held to address any issues, which may have presented them selves and cannot wait for the annual meeting.
The principal player in town meeting is the town meeting member. In Burlington there are 108 town meeting members with 18 coming from each of 6 separate precincts. The process of becoming a town meeting member is a relatively simple one. A candidate shall be nominated by submitting to the town clerk a nomination paper which is signed by a minimum of ten registered voters from the precinct in which he or she is a candidate. Those papers must be submitted 28 days in advance of the town wide election. Once elected the member serves a term of three years.
With our members now elected and seated in the center section of Fogelberg Auditorium we now are ready to introduce the rest of the major players as well as taking a look at the process of passing legislation.
The first group of participants is those who are part of the actual meeting process and either contribute to its operation or advise town meeting on its business. The next group is those who come before the town meeting requesting that the meeting take action on its legislation.
After the town meeting member the next most important character in the operation is the moderator. The moderator is the presiding officer at all sessions of town meeting. The moderator's primary function is to guide both the debate and the flow legislation. He guides the debate by recognition of those who will participate as proponents or opponents of each article, which is brought before the membership. He guides the flow of legislation by making sure the articles conform to accepted practices within the state and local laws.
In addition to duties as presiding officer, the moderator is the primary appointing officer of the committees both standing and special that report to the town meeting in an advisor role.
Next is the town clerk. The clerk principle duties are as the keeper of the public record. Any actions of law or appropriation, which are taken by town meeting, are recorded and reported in the Town's annual report by the clerk. The clerk may report or record other matters of law to the appropriate authority such as the Attorney general. In addition the clerk records attendance at the meeting in order to be able to declare a quorum. A quorum or attendance of 55 members is required in order for the town meeting to conduct business. Should attendance fall below that number and a call of the roll is requested the meeting must adjourn without quorum and no legislation may be adopted. Any votes of town meeting, which are roll call votes, are conducted and recorded by the clerk.
Joining the moderator and the town clerk at the podium is town counsel. Town counsel's primary function at town meeting is to review the warrant as to legal form as well as render opinions which on legal issues that may come up from time to time at the meeting. Counsel is obligated to attend the first session of the meeting.
Town meeting follows a very specific agenda, which is called the warrant. The warrant is the printed document, which includes all the articles, or items that the town meeting will take up for action during its session. The warrant serves as a warning to voters of the town that items printed may be dealt with generally or specifically. The warrant is open for placement of issues by any elected board as well as any town meeting member. The moderator may rule discussions, which are brought up at town meeting, which are not germane to a particular article, out of order. These items however may be taken up at the end of the meeting in the form of a non-binding resolution.
The next group of participants who play an integral part of the meeting are the standing and special committees. Appointed by tmoderatortor these committees primary function is to examine in detail information that proponents and opponents may present relative to general bylaws, zoning bylaws, capital expenditures, rules, land use, town facilities, and the operating budgets. Those reports are delivered to the town meeting as each item is introduced for deliberation.
In addition to standing committees, from time to time the town meeting may authorize the moderator to appoint special committees to take up specific issues, which may require additional study. Examples of such committees might be a school building study committee or the town wide growth advisory committee. These appointments generally expire after the committee has delivered its report to the town meeting.
The primary financial committee is the Ways and Means committee. This is a fifteen-member panel, which reviews the annual budget, as well as any article, which has a monetary impact on the town. All standing and special committees are advisor in nature, must be made up of a majority of town meeting members and report their results to the meeting directly.
Now that our meeting is complete with its members and advisors letÂ’s take a look at who comes before the meeting for action.
The annual meeting includes the adoption of the next fiscal years budget. The budget includes all the expenditures of all town departments and in its deliberations the town meeting requires that all appointing authorities and department heads make themselves available to appear at town meeting for the presentation of their budget.
The creation of the budget is a several months long process and generally includes the following steps.
The department heads creates their budgets, submits it to the appointing authority for review and changes. After adoption by the appointing authority it is next sent on to the Ways and Means Committee for its review.
The completed document is then printed and submitted in the form of one article, which is now ready for town meeting. The moderator introduces the article, the Ways and Means gives its recommendation and one by one each department head and appointing authority stands before town meeting to request adoption of their budgets.
The primary players in this process are the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee as together these to executive boards represent the largest expenditures in the town's budget. However there are other autonomous boards that hold executive authority over their departments. Those boards include the following. Planning Board, Board of Health, Recreation Commission, Library trustees and Board of Assessors.
The warrant is general broken down into sections which include the budget, capital items, general bylaws and zoning bylaws. In each case a very orderly process much like the budget process is followed prior to the legislation arriving at town meeting.
Any expenditure, which is not considered and annual budget item and exceeds a specific amount, is called a capital item. Those proposed expenditures are printed as an article individually and go through a submission by the department head to the particular supervisory authority. After the appropriate board votes it, it is then sent on to the Capital Budget committee and Ways and Means for review and a recommendation. When the moderator introduces the article, each committee presents its recommendation to the meeting members and then the authority presents its reasons as to why the capital expenditure is necessary.
The moderator's job is to control the debate according to Robert's Rules of Order, which is a well-recognized method of orderly procedure. After the initial presentation by the committees and the proponent of the measure any speaker wishing to be recognized need only raise their hand to be included in the debate.
Under normal circumstances the debate is quite straight forward. The article is discussed and when all sides are heard from the moderator will conduct a vote. Most votes at town meeting are conducted having the member's stand and the moderator visually determining the results. When the vote is to close for the moderator to call he may request counters to assist him in the tally. If the vote is of significant import or if the membership disagrees with the tally, seven members may raise their hands and request a roll call vote. In this case the clerk will call the names of each individual member and record their vote.
All votes at town meeting are by majority with several exceptions. Rezoning, bonding, land sales or eminent domain, as well as votes to terminate debate all require a two-thirds majority. On occasion a vote to reconsider an already defeated article may be introduced. This vote also requires a two-thirds vote and usually requires an argument that new information on the subject needs to be presented.
In closing let's look at hypothetical warrant article. Article number 14, which is a request for $200,000 for a fire truck.
1. The moderator will read the following language from the printed motion. It is moved and seconded by the capital budget committee to raise and appropriate $200,000 for the purpose of acquiring a new fire truck. Same to be spent under the direction of the Board of Selectmen.
2. The moderator will then introduce the Capital Budget committee chairmen who will give the committee recommendation. Next he will recognize the ways and means for their opinion.
3. After the committee recommendations the Moderator will recognize the Town administrator who as proponent of the article will now give the specific reasons as to why the article in question should pass.
4. Next is the debate from the floor. This is the opportunity for any member that wishes to make a case for or against the article.
The town clerk records the subsequent vote and if it is affirmative the supervising authority is now authorized to spend the money.
