Town meeting
Town meeting is a form of local government commonly practiced in the U.S. region of New England, but uncommon elsewhere in the United States. Despite the name "town," it can also apply to other governmental bodies, usually school districts.
While the uses and laws vary from state to state, the general form is that residents of the town or school district gather once a year to act as a legislative body, voting on operating budgets, laws and other matters for the community's operation over the following 12 months.
Its usage in the English language can also cause confusion. The town meeting is both an event, as in "Freetown had its town meeting last Tuesday" and an entity, as in "Last Tuesday, Town Meeting decided to repave Howland Road." A town meeting can also, more generally, refer to any moderated discussion group in which a large audience is invited, as in "John Kerry held a town meeting with Massachusetts voters to discuss issues in the upcoming election."
Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
Towns without town councils practice the town meeting form of government. There are two forms of town meeting:
- Open Town Meeting
Open Town Meetings are required of towns with fewer than 6,000 residents, and optional for those with 6,000+ residents. The Board of Selectmen will call the town meeting by issuing the warrant, or, the list of things to be determined with descriptions of each item. The Moderator officiates the meeting by reading each article, explaining it, and making sure the rules of parliamentary procedure are followed. He interprets voice votes and counts other votes. The Finance Committee makes recommendations on articles dealing with money, and often authors the proposed budget. The Town Clerk serves as the clerk of the meeting by recording its results. Freetown and Lakeville held their annual town meetings and voted on the budget for the Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District as part of those meetings. Freetown voters approved a budget that reduced their contribution by $100,000 from what the Regional School Committee asked for, thus requiring Lakeville to lower their contribution proportionally. Lakeville voters instead approved the amount the Regional School Committee asked for, which would require Freetown to go back and approve the extra $100,000.
When the towns could not agree, the Regional School Committee, as governing body of the Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District, called a joint town meeting of voters from Freetown and Lakeville to agree on a single regional school budget. The meeting voted in favor of the amount originally requested, which required Freetown to give the additional $100,000 it had held back.
- A newspaper article describing the joint town meeting.
Communities Still Using Town Meetings
(this list is incomplete)
Open Town Meeting:
Abington, Acushnet, Aquinnah, Avon, Bedford, Bellingham, Berkley, Blackstone, Bridgewater, Canton, Carver, Chilmark, Cohasset, Dennis, Dighton, Dover, Duxbury, East Bridgewater, Eastham, Easton, Edgartown, Foxborough, Freetown, Gosnold, Halifax, Hanover, Hanson, Harwich, Hingham, Hopedale, Hull, Kingston, Lakeville, Mansfield, Marion, Marshfield, Mashpee, Mattapoisett, Medfield, Medway, Mendon, Middleborough, Millis, Millville, Nantucket, Norfolk, Norton, Norwell, Oak Bluffs, Orleans, Pembroke, Plainville, Plympton, Provincetown, Raynham, Rehoboth, Rochester, Rockland, Sandwich, Scituate, Sharon, Somerset, Swansea, Tisbury, Truro, Wareham, Wellfleet, West Bridgewater, West Tisbury, Westport, Westwood, Whitman, Wrentham, Yarmouth
Representative Town Meeting:
Braintree, Brookline, Burlington, Dartmouth, Dedham, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Holbrook, Lexington, Milford, Milton, Needham, North Attleborough, Norwood, Plymouth, Randolph, Seekonk, Stoughton, Walpole, Wellesley, Weymouth
