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Town Meeting: A citizen's overview
Clinton Town Hall
General information
Open
Town Meeting is the form of municipal government for Clinton.
In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this is the basic form of
governance for most small municipalities. In the Open Town Meeting
form of government, any registered voter may attend, speak, and
vote on the issues being discussed. Attendance must be in person,
and attendees who are not registered voters will not be allowed
into the auditorium. State law requires the town to hold at least
one Town Meeting each year in the early Spring. This is the Annual
Town Meeting, whose main purpose is to appropriate money to fund
the Town's expenses for the following fiscal year. The Annual
Town Meeting allows for action on other subjects also. If additional
matters come up at a later time, they may become the subject of
a Special Town Meeting which may be called by the Board
of Selectmen or by citizen's petition.
The Warrant
The Warrant is the notice to the voters of matters to be considered
and acted on at an Annual or Special Town Meeting. Sometimes the
articles in the Warrant are quite general, and sometimes they
are very detailed and specific. Citizens may also petition to
place articles on an "Annual Town Meeting" Warrant.
Warrants for Town Meeting are published in The Item and The Times
Courier at least seven days before the date of the Meeting. The
Warrant is also available for download from this website. Printed
copies of the Warrant shall be furnished the voters at all town
meetings. Articles in the Warrant shall be acted upon in the order
in which they stand, except that the Moderator may, upon request
and for reasons stated, entertain a motion to take up an article
out of its regular order.
Annual Town Meeting
The Annual Town Meeting shall be held on the last Monday of April
at 7pm inside Fallon Memorial Auditorium at Clinton Town Hall,
242 Church Street. The annual election of Town Officers shall
be held on the first Monday in May each year. The polls are open
from 7am to 8pm.
Special Town Meeting
Special Town Meetings shall be called on any day not earlier than
7pm except that on Saturday they may not be called earlier than
9am.
Rules and procedures of Town Meeting
Clinton's Town Meeting follows the rules established
in the book Town
Meeting Time, a handbook of parliamentary
law prepared by the Massachusetts
Moderators Association.
Quorum
There must be at least 250 registered voters in attendance in
order for an Annual Town Meeting to proceed. A Special Town Meeting
requires a quorum of 200 registered voters.
The Moderator
Town Meeting is conducted by the Moderator,
an elected position with a term of three years. The Moderator
serves as the presiding officer, regulating the proceedings, deciding
all questions of order and making public declaration of all votes.
The Moderator's goal is to conduct the Town Meeting in a fair,
yet expeditious manner, allowing all points of view a fair hearing
while still keeping the process moving.
Town Meeting Agenda
The Warrant is the official agenda for the Annual Town Meeting,
and contains all the articles for consideration, together with
such recommendations to the Town as were available from the Finance
Committee and the Selectmen. Articles are usually considered
in the order in which they appear in the Warrant, which the he
Selectmen determine. Articles dealing with similar subject matter
are usually grouped together: financial, school, planning and
zoning, etc. Citizen's petitions are generally placed at the end
of the Warrant. The Meeting has the power to change the order
if necessary.
Articles and Motions
An article (as printed in the Warrant and Finance Committee Report)
describes the subject under discussion, while a motion made under
the article describes the specific action to take on the article.
Motions must be seconded before discussion may begin or a vote
is taken.
Speaking on a Motion
When speaking on a motion, a voter should go to one of the microphones
located at the front of the auditorium and clearly give their
name and address and committee association (if applicable). All
remarks and questions should be addressed to the Moderator. Not
everyone who wishes to speak will be heard. When the Meeting decides
that it has heard enough discussion and is ready to vote, a motion
may be made from the floor to "move the question". Such
a motion means that debate will be ended and voted on immediately.
No person shall speak more than twice upon any question, except
to answer an inquiry or give information requested.
Voting on a Motion
All votes on motions shall be taken in the first instance by a
show of hands. If the Moderator be in doubt he may call for a
second show of hands. If the Moderator be still in doubt, or if
the vote as declared by the Moderator be immediately questioned
by seven or more of the voters, the vote shall then be taken by
a “yes” or “no” ballot.
Amendments
If a voter wishes to change a motion in some fashion, the procedure
is to amend the motion. All motions to amend must be in writing
and must state exactly how the voter wishes to change the motion.
A voter who wishes to amend a main motion must have the amendment
in writing. An amendment may consist of adding, deleting, or substituting
words in the motion currently on the floor. A motion to amend
requires only a majority vote, even though the motion to be amended
may require two-thirds or more for final passage.
Comments from Moderator John Hogan
(The following information has been republished
with permission.)
"The Clinton Town Meeting is run by way of
the Clinton By-Laws of 1914, as amended over the years. It is
a very short written statement and only has general guidelines
on how to conduct the meetings. The last sentence sums it up by
saying that the Moderator should conduct the meeting in a manner
he feels is fair, should something come up not covered by the
by-law (not much is)."
"I, and most Moderators, use a book called
Town Meeting Time as a back-up. It is more comprehensive, but
still leaves many issues up to local custom. What is done in one
community may be done differently in another."
"The meeting is run by the voters, not the
selectmen. The selectmen traditionally move a question to get
it started, but any citizen present can do it. Selectmen can speak
or try to sway voters just like anyone else, but their vote counts
no more or less than anyone else in the hall."
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