Changes to expect at Wellesley Special Town Meeting

The Wellesley Select Board will convene a Special Town Meeting on Oct. 21 at Wellesley High School, and the gathering will have some new wrinkles.

Moderator Mark Kaplan, who will preside over the meeting, shared some updates during the recent All Board Meeting (See also “Not bored by Wellesley’s All Board meeting”).

In the aftermath of the spring Annual Town Meeting, appointed and elected officials met with the moderator and a survey of Town Meeting members was conducted to consider what might be done to improve the experience of the legislative body’s sessions.

Out of all that Kaplan has worked with town counsel to come up with a revised set of moderator guidelines featuring three notable changes.

• Standing mics will be introduced, allowing members and others who wish to speak to more efficiently have their voices heard (as opposed to raising hands that may or may not be seen)
• The maximum speaking time will be shortened from five to three minutes to help move Town Meeting along more quickly. There will be a mechanism to allow flexibility as needed.
• Members will be able to make a motion to move the previous question. “That’s a mechanism which virtually all town meetings that I’m aware of have, where after a certain amount of time somebody can move the question,” Kaplan said. For Wellesley Town Meeting or Special Town Meeting, after 30 minutes of discussion, members can motion for the question to be moved—a two-thirds majority will be required for the motion to carry. This will “preserve the Wellesley tradition of extended debate,” he said, but also allow a way to cut off discussion that drags on.

Kaplan added that Special Town Meeting will continue with the hybrid voting system used during Town Meeting in the aftermath of technical issues with the electronic voting. If a motion appears to have little opposition, the moderator will call for a voice vote, with some exceptions depending on the nature of the motion.

What Wellesley Special Town Meeting will be voting on in October

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