Civics Sunday: Town Meeting Quorum Legal Notice
November 8, 2020 / /
Legal Notice
November 5, 2020
In accordance with Section 7 of Chapter 92 of the Acts of 2020, notice is hereby given that during its 6:30 P.M. meeting on Monday November 16, 2020, the Holliston Select Board will consider reducing the quorum of the Special Town Meeting to be held on Saturday December 5, 2020 to not less the 10% of the quorum of 100 registered voters specified in Article I. Section 9 of the General By-Laws of the Town of Holliston.
This discussion will be advertised to the public via Zoom; login information can be found on the agenda posted on the town website at www.townofholliston.us
Benjamin Sparrell, Select Board Clerk
Ahronian Landscaping & Design
Superette
Prana Center
Holliston Hardware
Aesop's Fable Book Store
Jensen & Sheehan
Fiske's General Store
Main Effort Financial
Plan Dynamic
6 Comments
It has been too long since I was involved in local affairs, but my memory tells me that the quorum for a town meeting is part of the holliston by-laws. If that is the case the quorum can only be changed by amending the by-laws.
John, under the Emergency Acts Governor Baker put into place back in the Spring because of COVID-19 the Select Board are given the authority to reduce the Quorum.
Here is a link to a summary of all the items allowed during the emergency
https://www.mintz.com/insights-center/viewpoints/2020-03-16-governor-baker-issues-executive-order-reduce-risk-covid-19
Hello Representative Losch. As a result of the impact brought about by the COVID pandemic, the Legislature passed certain special acts to allow for more flexible acts of local government. Under the Chapter 7 of Acts of 2020, Towns can amend quorums with the following language which supercedes our by-laws;
SECTION 7. (a) Notwithstanding section 13 of chapter 39 of the General Laws or any other general or special law, charter provision or by-law to the contrary, a town may act by vote of its select board or board of selectmen, in consultation and with the approval of the town moderator, to prescribe the number of voters necessary to constitute a quorum at any town meeting held during the governor’s March 10, 2020 declaration of a state of emergency at a number that is less than the number that would otherwise be required by law, town by-law or town charter; provided, however, that the number of voters necessary to constitute a quorum shall not be less than 10 per cent of the number that would otherwise be required.
(b) The select board or board of selectmen shall publish notice of its intention to consider an adjustment of town meeting quorum requirements under this section not less than 7 days before the vote of the select board or board of selectmen. The select board or board of selectmen shall provide for adequate means of public access that will allow interested members of the public to clearly follow the deliberations of the select board or board of selectmen on making a quorum adjustment as those deliberations are occurring.
(c) Not less than 10 days after a vote of the select board or board of selectmen to adjust the quorum requirement under this section, the town clerk shall notify the attorney general of the adjusted quorum requirement.
(d) All actions taken pursuant to this section are hereby ratified, validated and confirmed to the same extent as if the town meeting had been conducted in accordance with all other applicable laws, charter provisions, ordinances and by-laws.
I hope this is helpful.
Respectfully,
John Cronin
Chair, Select Board
Are you saying that you will only need 10 people to vote on issues presented?
Is this because we can’t have groups meet inside?
How many are in the committee? This seems wrong to me….
Marcia, you are partially correct. At the Select Board meeting next week the Select Board will deliberate and possibly vote on lowering the quorum. The quorum can be lowered to a number as low as ten. It is because people might not want to come Town Meeting during a pandemic. No registered voter can be turned away if they show up.
Speaking for myself, and not as a member of the Finance Committee, I believe that if the quorum is lowered the only articles on the warrant should be those that are either necessary for the running of the town until Regular Town Meeting or have an issue with timeliness that requires them being in this warrant. Even if the quorum isn’t lowered I have confidence the Select Board will minimize the warrant so the Town Meeting can be conducted efficiently to minimize everyone’s exposure.
The Town has received some calls from residents concerned about a potential reduction of quorum, so I would just like to add some context to the legal notice above:
The Select Board will take up the matter to evaluate a possible change in the quorum for the December 5th Special Town Meeting on Monday November 16th.
The Board will consider a modification to allow for the Town’s business to be conducted in the most efficient manner possible.
The options include: (1) the status quo option (keeping the existing quorum level of 100), or (2) possibly reducing it to some number slightly lower to accommodate the potential of not achieving the typical 100-125 citizens that attend STM. Prior to the Annual Town Meeting (eventually held in July) the conversation had centered on potentially lowering the quorum to 60 or 75.
When deciding to postpone STM from October 26th to December 5th, the Board selected a Saturday to optimize attendance and allow the schools the opportunity to safely turn the space around for learning the following Monday.