Reading, Massachusetts - Government

Government

The municipal government of the town of Reading comprises a representative town meeting, whose members are elected from eight precincts.

The town elects a five member board of selectmen by general election, who serve for overlapping three year terms. The selectmen are responsible for calling the elections for the town meeting, and for calling town meetings. They initiate legislative policy by proposing legislative changes to the town meeting, and then implement the votes subsequently adopted. They also review fiscal guidelines for the annual operating budget and capital improvements program and make recommendations on these to the town meeting. In addition the board serves as the local road commissioners and licensing board, and appoints members to most of the town's other boards, committees, and commissions.

The day to day running of the town government is the responsibility of a town manager, appointed by the board of selectmen.

Read more about this topic:  Reading, Massachusetts

Famous quotes containing the word government:

    ... Washington was not only an important capital. It was a city of fear. Below that glittering and delightful surface there is another story, that of underpaid Government clerks, men and women holding desperately to work that some political pull may at any moment take from them. A city of men in office and clutching that office, and a city of struggle which the country never suspects.
    Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)

    Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    I do love this people [the French] with all my heart, and think that with a better religion and a better form of government and their present governors their condition and country would be most enviable.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)