Mr. Worden will be in charge, and there will be no delay
Friday, April 20th, 2007Some people have been wondering how Town Meeting will get going, as it is expected that the new Town Moderator, John Leone, will (understandably!!) miss some initial sessions due to what has happened.
According to an e-mail sent out by BoS Chair Annie LaCourt, Massachusetts law states that the old Moderator’s term does not end until the new Moderator is “elected and qualified”. Here, “qualified” means “sworn in”. So without any action needed from anyone, John Worden will simply continue in the chair and will run the Meeting until Mr. Leone is ready. When he is ready, Mr. Leone needs only show up before the Clerk and be sworn. At that moment he will automatically become Moderator.
Some people have also discussed delaying the start of Town Meeting out of respect to Mr. Leone. The aforementioned e-mail from Ms. LaCourt also said that Town Meeting would not be delayed and this was in accordance with Mr. Leone’s wishes.