HomeMy WebLinkAboutGuide to Writing a Citizen Warrant Article
Guide to Writing a Citizen Warrant Article
The Select Board (by Town Charter and state law) is the body responsible for developing the town
meeting warrant, which is the list of articles that is presented to the voters at town meeting for
consideration and vote. Most articles are developed and submitted by various town officials and/or
town boards/committees/commissions, but citizens can submit an article to be placed on the warrant
(sample citizen warrant article form may be found on the town website). The Town of Nantucket has a
healthy tradition of citizen-submitted warrant articles for town meetings. Per Massachusetts General
Law (Ch. 39, s. 10), citizen articles require the signatures of 10 registered voters (registered in the Town
of Nantucket) for an annual town meeting and 100 registered voters (or 10% of registered voters
whichever is less – generally 100 is less) for special town meetings. Several months before a town
meeting (or sometimes several weeks before a special), the Board endorses a timeline prepared by
Town Administration which contains what actions are to be taken leading up to the town meeting,
including when the warrant will be open for the acceptance of articles, meetings, hearings, notices,
publications. The Town of Nantucket has taken the unusual step of providing legal assistance for the
preparation of citizen warrant articles. The timeline will contain the dates when the legal assistance is
available; generally, it is between 4-6 weeks prior to the deadline for citizen article submittals. We
encourage citizens to take advantage of this unique opportunity for special assistance.
Some things to remember when preparing your warrant article:
1. Your article will be printed in the warrant “as is”. This means that any spelling, grammatical,
punctuation or typographical errors will be printed in the town meeting warrant document. The
use of “spell check” is encouraged.
2. You may be asked a lot of questions about your article by the various boards/committees/town
agencies that may be reviewing it. Most likely, these questions will be coming from the Finance
Committee, Select Board or Planning Board (if it is a zoning article). It is recommended that you
“do your homework” on the article and attend the meetings that are held about it. The
attached “Basic Information Request for Town Meeting Appropriation Articles” has been
developed to assist you with information that the Finance Committee and/or Select Board is
likely to request if you are seeking town funds. If you are seeking town funds, a funding source
should be identified.
3. If your warrant article is something that would normally go through a Town process, such as a
capital item, you may ultimately be referred to the Select Board for consideration as to
sponsoring the item to go through the established process. For example, if you are proposing to
fund a bike path project that has not gone through the Town’s review process (which sometimes
spans a year or more) you may find that Town agencies and departments recommend against
such a proposal until it has gone through that process. The reason for this is that annually the
Town updates its Capital Improvement Plan (“CIP”) with projects prioritized in order of need,
funding availability, legal mandate, and other established criteria. The agencies are likely to find
that your project simply does not fit in anywhere without the established review process. You
may disagree and lengthy discussions about what is/isn’t a “priority” tend to follow. Your
appointed and elected town officials are in place to conduct reviews and make decisions and
recommendations about a wide variety of projects and must take a wider perspective perhaps
than you do about your project.
When you feel that your warrant article is ready to be submitted, you should:
1. Obtain the required number of signatures. Your article will not be accepted without valid
signatures of the required number of voters registered in Nantucket. You may obtain more
signatures than required, but not less. Please make sure the signatures are legible and that the
names are legibly printed next to the signature, with a legible street address. The first signature
on the warrant article will become the sponsor of the article. It is best to be sure that signature
is that of someone who can represent and speak to the article.
2. Submit your article to the Town Administration office, where it will be stamped in as “Received”,
it will then be submitted to the Town Clerk’s office, where verification of signatures will occur.
3. If possible, please provide your article to the Town Administration office in MS Word format, in
addition to a hard copy with the signatures.
Additional general information about warrant articles:
1. Depending on what your article is meant to achieve (ie, bylaw amendment, home rule petition,
zoning change, funding request) even if it is approved by town meeting, it may require
additional action, including from other agencies such as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts;
or, a ballot vote at a subsequent election. Do not assume that it will go into effect immediately
upon passage.
Bylaw amendments (general and zoning): require the approval of the state Attorney General’s
office before taking effect, although there are special rules relating to the application of zoning
bylaw amendments, to specific developments.
Home rule petitions: require the approval of the state legislature (this has been known to take
years).
Financial appropriations: funding is generally available in the fiscal year specified – either the
current year or the next fiscal year beginning on July 1.
2. If your warrant article is NOT recommended by the Finance Committee and you still want to
proceed with it, you will need to prepare a positive motion for it and submit it to the Moderator
in writing prior to Town Meeting. Limited assistance is available from the Town to help you with
a positive motion.
3. If you have a funding proposal, please keep in mind that Town Meeting cannot mandate the
funding for any more than the upcoming fiscal year; and, depending on what the item is, Town
Meeting cannot mandate that the funds be spent (that happens with the discretion of your
elected officials, the Select Board).
Prepared by: Town Administration
Endorsed by Finance Committee: December 4, 2012
Endorsed by Board of Selectmen: December 12, 2012
Updated by Town Administration October 2018