Submitted by jonahofthesea t3_yvyko1 in massachusetts
I think I remember seeing somewhere that, in Mass, when a town is officially a town (or city) and not just a village, it has to have a mayor. Did I make that up? Can a town choose to not be goverend by a mayor?
And thank you for saying select board, not selectmen.
It is the trend that boards of "selectmen" are transitioning over to "select board." It is good that it is more inclusive, even if "select board member" or "selectperson" is a bit clunkier when trying to address someone with their title. It's just too bad that every single one that wants to change has to be approved by the General Court.
Thanks for the fabulous explanation from another government nerd. I was even about to get all into the Town Administrator with Selectboard and Town Manager with Town Council distinction but you made it perfectly clear that the two types you discussed were the basic categories that can have more variation.
Thanks for the award! As much as I love to talk about the structures of government, I figured I'd keep it as relevant to the question as possible. It doesn't even touch on cities with commissioners instead of a city council, mostly because I'm reasonably sure no Plan C cities currently exist in Massachusetts, despite it being an option in statute.
If any other nerds want to know more about other municipalities' forms of government, I found this listing from the MMA from a few years ago: https://www.mma.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/muni_forms_of_gov_2017.pdf. There have been a few changes since then (as someone mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Framingham is now a city) but it is still a good overview.
May we one day meet geeking out about municipal government! It just makes me happy to see somebody do such a great job with a complex topic that I really enjoy myself.
Framingham didn’t get a mayor until 2017, and was considered the largest town in the country by many beforehand.
Framingham's Home Rule Charter was approved by voters on April 4, 2017, and took effect on January 1, 2018.[30] On that date, Yvonne M. Spicer was inaugurated as Framingham's first mayor.
Towns typically have boards of selectmen, town managers, town administrators, etc. Cities typically have mayors, but in some edge cases the mayoral position is ceremonial
| Did I make that up?
Yes - or you remembered incorrectly. No mayor requirement. You can learn about town meetings here
Cities have mayors, towns have selectmen.
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My parents live in a town with a town manager.
The naming convention generally follows the type for government, but not always. Direvt meeting in villages, Select boards are usually in towns, and mayor's in cities.
LegisLAYshun t1_iwgp5v2 wrote
There are only two types of municipal entities in Massachusetts: cities and towns. "Village" is a term for an informal division within a city or town and doesn't have any meaning with regard to state law. There are 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, and there is no place in Massachusetts that is not already part of an existing city or town (no "unincorporated" land).
There are a number of specific forms that a city or a town can take under Massachusetts law. You can see some of those forms for cities in the MGL here, with related municipal information in subsequent sections and chapters: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter43/Section1
Those get into a lot of specifics that, unless you are a government nerd like me, you may not be interested in. In short, here are some of the main differences between towns and cities:
A town's legislative power rests with town meeting, whether it is an open (any voter in town can show up and participate) or elected (town meeting members are elected in a sort of super part-time legislative body) town meeting, and the select board is the town's executive. Select boards usually hire a town manager/administrator for the actual day-to-day running of the town, sort of how a nonprofit board of directors hires an executive director to run the nonprofit.
A city usually has a city council that serves as its legislative body, though as you can see from the different types of cities in the MGL, it can vary on how it functions relative to the administration. As you can also see, the election and role of a mayor also vary: some are elected independently, some are elected from the council, and cities sometimes also have a city manager/administrator.