Town Selectboard Rules and Procedures

Thank you for attending the Selectboard meeting. We thought it would be helpful to outline our process. We welcome input and want people to participate and feel the below process offers the best opportunity to participate in Town business.

Meeting Agenda:

  • The meeting agenda is set by the Chair of the board in consultation with the rest of the board and the Municipal Manager.
  • Any resident can ask for a topic to be included on a future agenda. A request for an agenda item does not guarantee it will be included (official agenda request procedure will be added to this policy when finalized).

Meeting Procedure:

  • Every meeting is run and controlled by the Chair of the Board or the Vice Chair (in a situation where both are not able to attend, another member run the meeting)

Citizen Comments:

  • Per 1 V.S.A. § 312(h), the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to express its opinions on matters considered by the public body during the meeting, as long as order is maintained. Public comment shall be subject to reasonable rules established by the chairperson.
  • Therefore, the Chair is able to, among other things set time limits on comments, allow only one comment per resident, and end the citizen comment part of the meeting when they feel it is necessary.
  • As the topics of citizen comments are not warned on the agenda, it will be understood that the board and the Municipal Manage will not respond to any comments directly during the meeting. Citizen comments' topics maybe addressed later via being placed on a new agenda, through email communication, in person conversation, or other means.
  • For people in person, they must be called on to make a comment, come to the table and state their name and finish their comment by the end of the allocated time. If the person is on Zoom, they need to raise their electronic hand and wait to be called on and unmuted.

Agenda Topics:

  • The board will take up a discussion on the topic or allow the presenter to discuss the topic. The board then will ask questions, make comments, and enter into a discussion amongst themselves about the agenda topic.

After this discussion, the board, may, ask for public comments/feedback/questions from the public. Time limits maybe enforced, if the Chair deems it appropriate. For a member of the public to participate, they need to follow the same rules as above in Citizens Comments

  • After an action is taken by the Board on an agenda topic (vote, tabled, held for future debate, etc) no further discussion will happen on that topic.
    • For any agenda item that falls into a category covered under 1 V.S.A. § 313, the board may vote to enter executive session to discuss the topic.

Meeting Ending

  • When the agenda items have all been acted on or when the Chair feels the meeting needs to end (due to disruption, time limits, emergencies, etc), a motion to adjourn the meeting may happen.
    • The Chair may also put the meeting "into recess" if they feel the meeting needs to be paused for whatever reason. In this scenario, the Chair needs to announce how long the recess will be for or what time the recess will end.