Section 5. Order of Business4-5
Section 5. Order of Business4-5 The order of business at the annual town meeting shall be as follows: 1. the election of a moderator, 2. the adoption of procedures to govern the conduct of the meeting, 3. to hear the reports of committees appointed at prior town meetings, 4. to hear a report on the fiscal condition of the town, 5. to act on a, so-called, consent agenda, After all of the above matters have been taken up the other articles in the town meeting warrant shall be acted upon in the order in which they are drawn, in lottery fashion, by the town clerk, assisted by the town moderator. When an article has been drawn in the lottery it shall then, at once, be acted upon and no other article shall be taken up until the drawn article has been fully disposed of, provided, however, a motion to return the article to the lottery pool until some other article has been acted upon, may be accepted by the moderator if made prior to any discussion on the merits of the drawn article. All articles which in the opinion of the moderator could, or might raise, appropriate or transfer any funds or otherwise obligate the town to spend or encumber any funds, shall be acted upon before the general appropriation article is taken up. The moderator may declare that certain articles must be acted upon in a particular order of sequence, or that one article must be acted upon before another article may be acted upon, or that an article is to be taken up at a time certain. In any such situation the articles shall be acted upon in the order and at the time determined by the town moderator. Any decision by the Moderator may be appealed to the floor of town meeting in accordance with Article IV, section 4 of the General Bylaws of the Town.