Town Meeting vs. City Council, With Reading in Session
Reading's Town Meeting meets through Nov. 19. How town meeting differs from a city council, and how a resident gets something on the agenda.
Reading’s Subsequent Town Meeting convenes Monday, November 9, at 7:30 p.m. The town calendar also lists sessions on Thursday, November 12, Monday, November 16 and Thursday, November 19. Reading has 192 Town Meeting Members, 24 from each of eight precincts, and they vote on every article. A resident who is not a member can ask a precinct member to carry a concern. The town’s Town Meeting page links the warrants and meeting videos, and the clerk’s number is 781-942-9050.
That is the Town Meeting model. A city does it differently.
Towns and cities
The Massachusetts Municipal Association counts 59 cities and 292 towns, and 14 places with a city form of government still call themselves towns. A town’s legislature is Town Meeting and its executive is usually an elected Select Board. A city’s legislature is a council and its executive is a mayor, a manager, or both.
- Open town meeting (260 towns): any registered voter can attend, speak and vote. Articles on the budget, zoning and bylaws sit in the warrant, and the room decides each one.
- Representative town meeting (32 towns): voters elect members from precincts. Most bodies have 50 to 429 members, averaging 214. Winchester has 192 members, 24 from each of eight precincts, according to Winchester News, and Reading moved from open to representative town meeting in 1944.
- City council: usually an odd number of members, typically nine to 13. Mayors serve in 47 cities, 24 on two-year terms and 23 on four-year terms. Melrose is a mayor-council city, with Jennifer Grigoraitis as mayor since being sworn in on January 8, 2024, per the city’s mayor page.
Towns hold their elections in the spring. Cities vote in November of odd-numbered years.
Where to push an idea
| Open Town Meeting | Representative Town Meeting | City Council | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who votes | Any registered voter in the room | Elected members | Elected councillors |
| Who runs day to day | Select Board, manager or administrator | Select Board, manager or administrator | Mayor and/or manager |
| Best way in | Speak, or file an article | Talk to your precinct’s members, or run for a seat | Public comment, or a councillor |
In a town, a citizen petition can put an article on the Town Meeting warrant. The signature count comes from state law and your bylaws, and the clerk certifies the names. Ask the clerk for the number and the date the Select Board closes the warrant, which can be months before the meeting.
Public bodies in Massachusetts must post meeting notices at least 48 hours ahead, excluding weekends and legal holidays, according to the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law primer. If you think a body broke the law, you file a written complaint with that body first, and the AG’s form says generally within 30 days of the violation.
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Sources
- Massachusetts Municipal Association: Local Government 101mma.org
- Massachusetts Municipal Association: Forms of government summarymma.org
- Massachusetts Attorney General: Open Meeting Law primermass.gov
- Winchester News: Did you know, Representative Town Meetingwinchesternews.org
- City of Melrose: Mayorcityofmelrose.org
- Town of Reading: Town Meetingreadingma.gov
- Town of Reading: calendarreadingma.gov
Details such as dates, hours and prices come from the sources above and can change. Check with the organizer before you go.
How we report: every date, price and address comes from a linked source.
