Law establishes process to postpone town meeting in emergencies

Town moderators have been given expanded powers to implement alternative methods for postponing town meetings due to a weather-related or public safety emergency, thanks to a law enacted and signed in the closing days of the 2013-2014 legislative session.

The new law, effective immediately, allows town moderators, in consultation with local public safety officials and their board of selectmen, to recess and continue a scheduled town meeting to a time, date and location certain upon declaration of a weather-related or other public safety emergency.

Previously, town moderators and town clerks had to be physically present at the scheduled meeting location to open, recess and continue the town meeting, a process that has raised legitimate public safety concerns among local officials.

“In the fall of 2012, the town of Georgetown had to postpone its Town Meeting due to Hurricane Sandy, but town officials could only do so by opening Town Meeting in the middle of the storm without a quorum present and adjourning the meeting until a later date,” said Sen. Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, who had filed the bill with Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport.

Sen. Rodrigues added, “This new law addresses an important local governance issue by eliminating the need to convene a town meeting during a declared state of emergency that puts lives in harm’s way and ensures that public safety always comes first.”