JURISDICTION.
1. The Ford Hall Town Meeting has all the legislative powers possessed by any legislative body within and including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Every bill introduced into said Town Meeting shall begin with language appropriate to the body which is supposed to be considering the same.
MEMBERSHIP.
2. No test of race, creed, sex, or property shall be applied in determining citizenship in the Ford Hall Town Meeting. Any person signing the roll and subscribing to the following declaration shall thereupon be regarded as a citizen.
DECLARATION.
3. I do solemnly declare that I will strive to advance the common good and the Commonwealth of Ford Hall by all means in my power.
OFFICERS.
4. The elective officers of the Town Meeting shall be a Moderator, Clerk, and a Sergeant-at-Arms who shall be elected by Preferential Ballot at the second regular meeting of each season. A majority of all the votes cast shall be necessary to a choice.
5. The Moderator may appoint a citizen to perform the duties of the chair for such period during his term of office as he may elect.
6. In case of a vacancy in the office of Moderator, or in case the Moderator or the citizen named by him in accordance with the preceding rule, is absent at the hour to which the Town Meeting stands adjourned, the Clerk shall call the Town Meeting to order and shall proceed until the Moderator appear or a temporary or a regular moderator be elected which shall be the first business in order.
The Moderator is ex-officio member of all committees.
CLERK.
7. The Clerk may appoint such assistants as he may desire and shall
- A. Keep the record of the proceedings of the Town Meeting.
- B. Enter at large in the Journal every question of order with the decision thereon.
- C. Prepare and cause to be listed on one sheet for reference a calendar of matters for consideration at the next session of the Town Meeting. Such list shall be regarded as the Order of the Day for the consideration of the Town Meeting at its next session and the matters noted thereon shall be considered in their due order unless otherwise specially voted by the Town Meeting. Any objection to the calendar shall be made and disposed of before the Town Meeting votes to proceed to the consideration of the Orders of the Day.
- D. Prepare and cause to be listed on one sheet a list of matters lying on the table.
SERGEANT-AT-ARMS.
8. The Sergeant-at-Arms shall be responsible for the preservation of the order and decorum of the Town Meeting. He may select such assistants, doorkeepers, and other officers as he may deem necessary. He shall execute the orders of the Moderator or the Town Meeting and shall have the custody of the property of the Town Meeting other than the records properly in the custody of the clerk.
COMMITTEES.
9. The following standing committees shall be elected by ballot from the citizens of the Town Meeting:
- A. A Committee on Rules, to consist of six members and the Moderator of the Town Meeting, who shall be ex-officio chairman of said committee.
- B. A Committee on Education, to consist of seven members.
- C. A Committee on Housing, to consist of seven members.
- D. A Committee on Health, to consist of five members.
- E. A Committee on Play and Recreation, to consist of five members.
- F. A Committee on Labor, to consist of seven members.
- G. A Committee on Judiciary, to consist of five members.
- H. A Committee on Transportation, to consist of five members.
- I. A Committee on Mercantile Affairs, to consist of five members.
- J. A Committee on Courtesies, to consist of five members.
- K. A Committee on Liquor Laws, to consist of five members.
- L. A Committee on Budget and Appropriations, to consist of seven members.
- M. A Committee on Municipal Affairs, to consist of five members.
- N. A Committee on City Planning, to consist of seven members.
- O. A Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to consist of seven members.
All of said committees shall be nominated by a nominating committee consisting of seven citizens elected by the Town Meeting. The Moderator of the Town Meeting shall designate one member of each of said committees to act as chairman thereof.
10. The Moderator shall appoint a committee of five to be known as the Committee on Ways and Means, who shall prepare for the consideration of the Committee on Budget and Appropriations an estimate of the probable expense of the Town Meeting for the current season. When such estimate has been considered and ordered by the said Committee on Budget and Appropriations, the said Ways and Means Committee shall extend the taxes necessary to meet said budget over the Town Meeting and appoint all officers necessary to collect, care for and disburse the same in orderly and regular fashion.
11. Before said Committee on Budget and Appropriations shall finally appropriate any sum for the support of the Town Meeting in its various functions it shall report its estimate to the full Town Meeting, and no such report shall be adopted unless approved by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at a regular Town Meeting.
12. All measures intended for presentation by any citizen shall be presented to the Clerk on paper furnished by the Clerk. The Clerk shall read all measures by title and the Moderator shall then refer them to their appropriate committees, before the order of the day has been considered at each Town Meeting. They shall be given a consecutive number by the Clerk and shall thereafter be referred to by number, title and by the name of the citizen introducing the same. The committees to whom said measures are referred shall consider the same as promptly as may be and may in said consideration call before them the original sponsor of such measure or any citizen who is in favor of or opposed to said measure. In addition thereto said committees may, if they shall so elect, call before them any person, whether a citizen of the Town Meeting or not, whose evidence or arguments might, in their judgment, be valuable to the committee or to the Town Meeting in their deliberations on the particular measure under consideration.
Said committees shall, as speedily as possible, report to the Town Meeting, their conclusions upon the matters referred to them, giving in concise form the reasons upon which said conclusions are based.
PETITIONS AND REPORTS OF COMMITTEES.
13. Petitions, memorials, remonstrances and papers of a like nature, and reports of committees shall be presented before the Town Meeting proceeds to the consideration of the Order of the Day, and the Moderator shall call for such papers.
PAPERS ADDRESSED TO THE TOWN MEETING NOT PETITIONS.
Papers addressed to the Town Meeting, other than petitions, memorials and remonstrances, may be presented by the Moderator, or by a citizen in his place, and shall be read, unless it is specifically ordered that the reading be dispensed with.
14. No bill shall be acted upon by the Town Meeting until it has been reported by the committee to which it has been referred: provided, however, that the Moderator may call upon any committee to report a bill before it, if in his judgment said report is unduly delayed. No bill shall be put to a final vote without having been read three several times.
ORDERS OF THE DAY.
15. Bills favorably reported to the Town Meeting by committees, and bills the question of the rejection of which is negatived, shall be placed in the Orders for the next session, and, if they have been read but once, shall go to a second reading without question. Resolutions reported in the Town Meeting by committees shall, after they are read, be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next session.
16. Reports of committees not by bill or resolve shall be placed in the Orders of the next session after that on which they are made to the Town Meeting; provided, that the report of a committee asking to be discharged from the further consideration of a subject and recommending that it be referred to another committee, shall be immediately considered.
17. Bills ordered to a third reading shall be placed in the Orders of the next session for such reading.
18. After entering upon the consideration of the Orders of the Day, the Town Meeting shall proceed with them in regular course as follows: Matters not giving rise to a motion or debate shall be first disposed of in the order in which they stand in the calendar; after which the matters that were passed over shall be considered in like order and disposed of.
19. When the Town Meeting does not finish the consideration of the Orders of the Day, those which had not been acted upon shall be the Orders of the next and each succeeding day until disposed of, and shall be entered in the calendar, without change in their order, to precede matters added under rules 15 and 16 and 17. The unfinished business in which the Town Meeting was engaged at the time of adjournment shall have the preference in the Orders of the next day, after motions to reconsider.
SPECIAL RULES AFFECTING THE COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS.
20. No matter which has been duly placed in the Orders of the Day shall be discharged therefrom, or considered out of the regular course. This rule shall not be rescinded, or revoked or suspended except by a vote of four-fifths of the members present and voting thereon.
21. If, under the operation of the previous question, or otherwise, an amendment is made at the second, or third reading of a bill substantially changing the greater part of such bill, the question shall not be put forthwith on ordering the bill to a third reading, but the bill, as amended, shall be placed in the Orders of the next session after that on which the amendment is made, and shall then be open to further amendment before such question is put. In like manner, when, under the operation of the previous question or otherwise, an amendment is made in any proposition of such a nature as to change its character, as from a bill to an order, or the like, the proposition as amended shall be placed in the Orders of the next session after that on which the amendment was made.
RECONSIDERATION.
22. When a motion for reconsideration is decided, that decision shall not be reconsidered, and no question shall be twice reconsidered; nor shall any vote be reconsidered upon either of the following motions:
23. Debate on motions to reconsider shall be limited to twenty minutes, and no citizen shall occupy more than five minutes; but on a motion to reconsider a vote upon any subsidiary or incidental question, debate shall be limited to ten minutes, and no citizen shall occupy more than three minutes.
RULES OF DEBATE.
24. No citizen shall speak more than once to the prevention of those who have not spoken and desire to speak on the same question.
25. No citizen shall speak more than five minutes upon any measure.
26. The proponent of any measure may speak for ten minutes.
27. Upon unanimous consent of all voting citizens present, any speaker may have the privilege of such further time as the said voting citizens present may designate.
28. Every motion shall be reduced to writing, if the Moderator so directs.
29. When a question is before the Town Meeting, until it is disposed of, the Moderator shall receive no motion that does not relate to the same, except the motion to adjourn, or some other motion that has precedence either by express rule of the Town Meeting or because it is privileged in its nature; and he shall receive no motion relating to the same, except:
- to lay on the table,
- for the previous question,
- to close the debate at a specified time,
- to postpone to a time certain,
- to commit (or recommit),
- to amend,
which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are arranged in this rule.
PREVIOUS QUESTION.
30. All questions of order arising after a motion is made for the previous question shall be decided without debate, excepting on appeal; and on such appeal, no citizen shall speak except the appellant and the Moderator.
31. The adoption of the previous question shall put an end to all debate and bring the Town Meeting to a direct vote upon pending amendments, if any, in their regular order, and then upon the main question.
MOTION TO COMMIT.
32. When a motion is made to commit, and different committees are proposed, the question shall be taken in the following order:
- a standing committee of the Town Meeting,
- a select committee of the Town Meeting,
and a subject may be recommitted to the same committee or to another committee at the pleasure of the Town Meeting.
MOTION TO AMEND.
33. A motion to amend an amendment may be received; but no amendment in the third degree shall be allowed.
ENACTING CLAUSE.
34. A motion to strike out the enacting clause of a bill shall only be received when the bill is before the Town Meeting for enactment.
PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.
35. Cushing’s Manual shall govern the Town Meeting in all cases to which they are applicable, and in which they are not inconsistent with these rules.
DEBATE ON MOTIONS FOR THE SUSPENSION OF RULES.
36. Debate upon a motion for the suspension of any of the rules shall be limited to fifteen minutes, and no citizen shall occupy more than three minutes.
37. Unless otherwise stated a majority vote of those present shall decide any question.
SUSPENSIONS, AMENDMENT AND REPEAL.
38. Nothing in these rules shall be dispensed with, altered or repealed, unless two-thirds of the citizens present consent thereto; but this rule and rule twenty-one shall not be suspended, unless by unanimous consent of the citizens present.