What Should the Select Board Size Be in Holliston?

The Holliston Governance Committee is in the process of studying whether Holliston should continue with its current Select Board of three elected members or change to a Select Board of five elected members.  The Select Board serves as the Chief Executive Board of the Town and has general supervision over all matters not assigned by state law, special acts or town bylaws to other town officers, boards, committees or commissions.  This analysis will involve not only the impact of adding two more members to the Select Board, but also how the change could affect the role of other town officials as well.  In this analysis, it is useful to know that the Town of Holliston has a current population of 15,000, employs a town and school workforce of 1,040 and has a fiscal 2022 operating budget of $71.1 million.

The research phase of the Governance Committee’s exploration of this issue has involved analyzing the relationship of population size to Select Board size and an analysis of the Select Board election results.  The Governance Committee is also in the process of talking with Holliston Select Board members, past and present, to gain their views on Select Board size.  That work will be followed up with discussions with Select Board members and officials of other comparable towns or towns that have previously dealt with this issue.

We have and will continue to review the work of Government Study Committees in other Massachusetts towns that have addressed this issue.  We also want to organize listening sessions with Holliston residents to hear your views regarding the Select Board size. 

To properly evaluate Select Board size, we will need to better understand the actual duties exercised by the Select Board and Town Administrator and how those duties should be aligned to achieve the maximum efficiency for both. 

At both the 2021 and 2022 May Annual Town Meetings, a Citizens Petition was submitted to increase the Holliston Select Board size to five members.