What is Town Meeting?

The legislative branch of town government is a representative Town Meeting made up of 252 representatives, elected from their home precincts (12 members from each of the 21 precincts in Arlington). Town Meeting generally gathers once a year in late April on Monday and Wednesday evenings at Town Hall. Special Town meetings may be called at other times in the year. 

Town Meeting approves local laws (called bylaws) and zoning, passes budgets, and authorizes town spending and borrowing.

Town Meeting is a local form of government only used in New England. 

The Massachusetts Guide to Town Meetings

Town vs City Government

In a town, the executive branch is an elected Select Board who hire the Town Manager to oversee day-to-day operations. Town Meeting is considered the legislative branch. A more complete explanation, including school governance, can be found on the Town Governance page. 

Who are my Town Meeting Members and How Do I Contact Them? 

Town Meeting is made up of Arlington residents with a variety of backgrounds and experiences from across the Town. Town Meeting members are elected for three-year terms and one third of the members are elected or reelected each year. Any registered voter can run for Town Meeting. As a representative Town Meeting, only the 252 Town Meeting Members can vote at Town Meeting. 

Town Meeting Member Contact List listed by precinct

You can look up your precinct, polling place and find maps of the precincts from the Elections & Voting pages.

If you would like an Excel file of the Town Meeting Member contact information, you can request that from the Town Clerk.  

Learn how to run for Town Meeting and how to prepare if elected 

New Town Meeting Member orientation webinar (from 2023 - one is planned for April 15, 2024 and information can be found under the Recent TMM emails tab on the Town Meeting main page.)

What Does Town Meeting Debate?

First an agenda, called the Warrant, needs to be developed. Required by law, the Warrant lists the articles that are to be deliberated and decided on during Town Meeting. Only items listed in the Warrant can be discussed at Town Meeting. 

The Select Board is responsible for the creation of the warrant. They vote to set the time period when warrant articles can be submitted.  There is a simple form residents can use to submit an article and collect the required signatures. On the days that the warrant is open, the Office of the Select Board will have the forms on their website or available to pick up in person. 

The signatures will be checked by the Town Clerk’s office for eligibility and an article that doesn’t have enough certified signatures can be rejected by the Select Board.

How is the Warrant Created?

December and January: Articles submitted for inclusion in the Warrant

Articles are agenda items that usually address one of three topics: Town bylaws (laws particular to Arlington), zoning issues, or financial issues. Any resident or business owner can submit an article with the signatures of 10 registered voters for the Annual Town Meeting or 100 voters for any Special Town Meeting. Town officials, and boards, committees or commissions can submit warrant articles. It is a good idea for a person or committee seeking to submit an article to contact our Town Counsel (an attorney for the Town) about the best way to carry out and word their idea. 

Town Counsel reviews all the submitted articles and creates a draft warrant in the proper format and with the correct wording. 

How to write an article

Late January: Warrant submission period closes 

February: Draft Warrant is posted online

February – April: Review of Articles

Articles are reviewed in public hearings by one of the three administrative bodies (Select Board, Redevelopment Board, Finance Committee) that will report on the article to the Meeting. The person who proposed the article and members of the public can comment, and the reviewing Board can ask questions or suggest changes they think would improve the article. Reports from these bodies take the form of formal recommended votes and comments and are publicly available.

One purpose of the hearings is to determine what, if anything, the administrative body will recommend to Town Meeting. Since an article is like an agenda item, it only describes the goal of the article. Changing a bylaw or passing the budget means we need an actual bylaw, or an actual budget written out. During the hearing the board or committee may determine that they won’t recommend the article to Town Meeting, or they may make changes to the wording the proponent drafted. The recommended vote included in the report to Town Meeting is simply the starting place since it can be amended further by Town Meeting.

The Warrant is finalized and distributed to residents as a ‘warning’ of what will be discussed at that year’s meeting. The Warrant is mailed to every household a few days before Town Meeting begins. This is a sample of what it looks like – it's easy to miss in the mail.

On the Town Meeting page, residents can find a PDF of the warrant and an online document called the Annotated Warrant.  In the Annotated Warrant, all the information and documents related to each article are linked on one page.  Residents can subscribe to the Town Meeting Member email list and receive email notices as new documents are added. This makes it easier to follow the articles that interest you.

April: Reports are published

The reports contain the complete text of the recommended vote or a recommendation of “no action” meaning that the board or committee recommends Town Meeting do nothing related to that article. The reports also contain comments explaining why the board or committee is making that recommendation. 

Town Meeting Members have an opportunity at Town Meeting to amend portions of a recommended vote offered by a reporting body, or substitute entirely new vote language in its place. For example, if the recommended vote is “no action,” a Town Meeting Member can make a motion to substitute another action in its place. Town Meeting votes on whether to accept the substitution. 

From the Town Meeting page, you can find the warrants, reports, and voting records from previous years.

April: Town Meeting Begins

Annual Town Meeting is held in the Robbins Memorial Town Hall auditorium on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 8-11 pm. Public may view from the balcony, while members sit on the floor. One by one each Article comes to the floor, then the recommended vote and any proposed amendments or substitutes are debated and then voted upon. The Town Moderator, who is elected by voters for three-year terms, presides over the business of Town Meeting. Town Meeting Members can discuss the articles before voting, non-members can also speak after being introduced by a member but cannot vote.  Some routine articles are on a consent agenda and if no one wishes to discuss them they are voted on as a group to save time.

A Special Town Meeting can be called by the Select Board at any time, but the process to submit articles, create the warrant, and debate the articles is the same. 

After Town Meeting

Once Town Meeting ends, Articles that require state action are forwarded to the Attorney General for approval, otherwise they take effect when Town Meeting adjourns. Information about the approvals and effective dates are available on the Town Bylaws page.