Residents,
As we head in to the winter months, the town government will be preparing for the Annual Open Town Meeting on May 6, 2019. The Board of Selectmen will begin the process by opening the Town Meeting Warrant, which is a listing of all the articles to be considered, at its next meeting. The warrant will remain open until the first Board of Selectmen meeting of the New Year scheduled for January 7, 2019.
Articles can be submitted by town boards, commissions and committees, employees, developers, land and business owners and residents. Residents interested submitting an article for the 2019 Annual Town Meeting Warrant, should begin working on the submission. Massachusetts General Law provides that a petition article submitted for consideration at an Annual Town Meeting by ten registered voters must be included on the Warrant. However, unlike articles submitted by boards, commissions and committees and staff, the language cannot be modified prior to Town Meeting. For that reason Westwood’s Town Charter strongly recommends that any proposed Warrant Article be reviewed by Town Counsel, the Board of Selectmen and/ or the Finance and Warrant Commission before collecting signatures to ensure the wording of the submitted petition article can accomplish the desired goal and be acted upon by vote of town meeting.
Once the Warrant is established by the Selectmen, a series of information meetings and hearings are held to discuss the merits of the articles and to obtain public input prior to drafting the final version of the articles. For instance zoning articles pass through a series of information meetings and hearings before the Planning Board and Finance and Warrant Commission where public input is sought and incorporated. This is the time in the process where significant modifications can be made to the language. Once the final version goes to Town Meeting for an up or down vote, only minor modifications are possible. This is because the affected land owners have the right to know in advance if a proposed change to the zoning of the parcel(s) they own will impact the ability to develop the parcel, affecting its value.
The Finance and Warrant Commission, Planning Board and other relevant boards, committees and commissions meet and discuss articles in January, February and March and all interested parties, including residents, are encouraged to stay abreast of the dates, time and agendas listed on the town’s website sand attend and speak up at the meetings.
The preparation process ends with the Finance and Warrant Commission, as an informed subgroup of the community’s registered voters, voting its recommendation on each article being considered at town meeting. The recommendations and a summary of the thinking behind the vote are provided in its Annual Report delivered by the mail to all households in the community.
Finally the Town Meeting is open to all registered voters of the community, so it’s important to confirm your status as a registered voter at least weeks in advance. The last Town Meeting conducted this past May, where attendance was 1,216 registered voters, introduced the use of electronic voting to register votes on articles that the Town Moderator cannot call by voice vote. The introduction of electronic voting has three principal advantages, it allows voters to vote privately, a hallmark of pure democracy, and it is more accurate and less time consuming than a standing vote.
The town encourages all of its residents to become and remain politically active in the decision making of the community. We believe our openness is one of the main reasons many of you came to and remain in Westwood. Together, with your active participation, we can continue to evolve into a community we are all proud of.
 Michael A. Jaillet
Town Administrator
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