HomeMy WebLinkAboutARTICLE 33 CITIZEN PETITION MECHANISM- Article 33. Petition the Legislature-Amend Town Charter — New Section 10 —
Citizen Participation Mechanisms (Right of Initiative Petition and Right of
Referendum). To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to
petition the Massachusetts Legislature to Amend Chapter 2 of the Charter for the Town
of North Andover by adding the following section as described below, beginning with
Section 10 Citizen Petition Mechanisms; or take any other action relative thereto.
Furthermore, this Amendment will be subsequently subject to approval by a favorable
vote of the inhabitants of the Town of North Andover qualified to vote in elections and
town affairs, at the next annual town election after Legislative approval. The question
approving the Amendment shall appear on the ballot substantially the same as outlined in
MGL, Chapter 4313: Section 11.
Section 10 Citizen Participation Mechanisms
2-10-1 Right of Initiative Petition; Initiative Procedures.
Registered voters of the town may, by initiative petition propose to any annual or special
town meeting the passage of a measure and, if such measure not be passed by said town
meeting, may cause such measure to be submitted to the voters of the town for their
approval thereof as hereinafter provided. However, no measure shall be proposed by
initiative petition hereunder which: (1) makes a specific appropriation of money from the
treasury of the town or other than an appropriation to pay for the costs of a study, (2)
amends the zoning map or zoning by-laws of the town, (3) increases taxes or fees, or (4)
proposed the submission to the voters of the town of an amendment to the charter.
An initiative petition shall set forth the full text of the measure proposed by the
petitioners, and shall be signed by not less than one hundred registered voters of the town
each of whom shall sign his or her name and record his or her address on the petition as
they appear on the list of registered voters. The initiative petition shall be submitted to
the Town Clerk prior to the town meeting deadline for warrant articles. Upon
certification of signatures, Town Clerk shall forward the initiative petition to Town
Counsel.
If Town Counsel certifies that the measure proposed by the initiative petition does not
conflict with the constitution or laws of the Commonwealth, and that it includes only
subjects not excluded from the initiative by this section, the initiative petition shall then
be filed by him with the Board of Selectmen, who shall cause the measure proposed
therein to be included in the warrant for the annual or special town meeting as an
initiative article, so designated; provided, however, that if the Town Counsel shall fail,
within ten days following his receipt of an initiative petition, to notify the Board of
Selectmen in writing of his reasons for not certifying the petition, that petition shall been
deemed to have been certified by him, and the Board of Selectmen shall cause the
measure therein proposed to be included in the warrant as an initiative article, so
designated.
Whenever an initiative article is included in the warrant for an annual or special town
meeting, the moderator shall give to the first named signer of the initiative article, or his
designee, the privilege of making the first motion under the initiative article, which shall
be in the words of the proposal in the article.
The moderator shall not accept any amendments or substitute motions without the
express approval of the person offering the first motion under the initiative article.
Action under an initiative article shall be taken by majority, two-thirds or such other vote
as may be required by the nature of such action under applicable state laws.
If such annual or special town meeting shall dissolve without having adopted, enacted, or
voted passage of the motion presented under an initiative article, but if at least one-fifth
of the total number of town meeting voters voting upon the motion shall have voted in the
affirmative, the original petitioners of the initiative article may complete their petition by
filing with the Board of Selectmen an additional number of signatures of registered voters
of the town which, when combined with the signatures of the original petitioners, will
equal in number not less than fifteen percent of the total number of persons registered to
vote in the town. Each additional signatory voter shall sign his or her name, and record
his or her address upon the petition as they appear on the list of registered voters, and all
such additional signatures shall be gathered not earlier than the day after which the town
meeting dissolved, and shall be filed with the Board of Selectmen as set forth above not
later than sixty days, exclusive of Sundays and legal holidays, following the dissolution.
If the annual or special town meeting shall have adopted, enacted or voted passage of any
other separate motion as an alternative to the initiative article motion, such other motion
to be designated an alternative motion by Town Counsel, the original petitioners of the
initiative article may in like manner complete their initiative petition by filing with the
Board of Selectmen an additional number of signatures, all as provided in the next
paragraph:
Within ten days after the filing of the completed initiative petition, the Selectmen shall
issue a call for a special election, which shall be held within thirty days after the issuing
of that call, for the purpose of presenting to the voters the measure proposed in the
initiative petition which has been acted upon unfavorably by the town meeting, and any
alternative measure which may have been adopted by the town meeting, provided,
however, that the election shall not be held during the exclusionary period from June 30th
to September 7th. In the event a special election has been scheduled during this
exclusionary period for other reasons, then the exclusionary period will not apply and the
special election for the initiative petition measure will be held on the same date as the
other scheduled special election. Both the initiative petition measure and any alternative
measure shall appear upon the ballot to be voted upon by the voters, and shall be stated in
the same language and form used in the motions acted upon by the town meeting.
If a majority of the voters shall vote in the affirmative, with at least twenty percent of the
registered voters voting, on either the initiative article motion or upon the alternative
motion, the measure voted upon in the affirmative by the number of voters thus required,
or the measure receiving the larger number of votes if conflicting measures are approved
shall take effect immediately or at such later time as may be specified in the measure, or
if it be a by-law subject to the approval of the Attorney General, it shall take effect
subject to Section 32 of Chapter 40 of the General Laws; provided, however, that any
measure the passage of which shall by law require a two-thirds affirmative vote in a town
meeting shall, if proposed by an initiative petition, or if it be an alternate measure
adopted by the town meeting, shall require the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the voters
voting at the special election called under this section. Any measure proposed by
initiative petition, or adopted by affirmative vote of the town meeting, and approved by
the voters of the town under this section shall, after a period of 12 months, be subject to
amendment, revision or repeal by town meeting, providing that such action does not
conflict with the constitution or laws of the Commonwealth.
No provision in this section shall negate or in any way limit the right of ten or more
registered voters to have an article inserted in the annual town meeting warrant at their
written request, or the right of one hundred registered voters of the town to have an
article inserted in a special town meeting warrant at their written request, all as provided
for in Chapter 39, Section 10, of the General Laws.
No provision in this section shall negate in any way the Massachusetts General Laws,
North Andover Charter and North Andover Bylaws governing the conduct and other
requirements of special and annual town meetings.
2-10-2 Right of Referendum; Referendum Procedures
A vote passed at any town meeting authorizing the expenditure of fifty thousand dollars
or more as a special appropriation, or establishing a new board or office or abolishing an
old board or office merging two or more boards or offices, or fixing the term of office of
town officers, where such term is optional, or increasing or reducing the members of a
board, or adopting a new by-law, or amending an existing by-law, shall not be operative
until after the expiration of ten days, exclusive of Sundays and holidays, from the
dissolution of the meeting. If, within ten days, a petition, signed by not less than three
percent of the registered voters of the town, containing their names and addresses as they
appear on the list of registered voters, is filed with the selectmen asking that the question
or questions involved in such a vote be submitted to the registered voters of the town at
large, then the selectmen, after the expiration of five days, shall forthwith call a special
election for the sole purpose of presenting to the registered voters at large the question or
questions so involved. The polls shall be opened at seven o'clock in the morning and
shall be closed not earlier than eight o'clock in the evening, and all votes upon any
questions so submitted shall be taken by ballot, and the check list shall be used in the
several precinct meetings in the same manner as in the election of town officers. The
questions so submitted shall be determined by a majority vote of the registered voters of
the town voting thereon, but no action of the town meeting shall be reversed unless at
least twenty per cent of the registered voters shall so vote. Each question so submitted
shall be in the form of the following question, which shall be placed upon the official
ballot: -- "Shall the town vote to approve the action of town meeting whereby it was
voted (brief description of the substance of the vote and by what vote thereon if such vote
was tabulated)?" If such petition is not filed within the period of ten days, the vote of the
town meeting shall become operative and effective upon the expiration of said period.
Absent voter ballots shall be used at such election in accordance with the provisions of
chapter fifty-four; or take any other action relative thereto.
Petition of Albert F. Movsesian and others