We are pleased to welcome Billerica to our family of municipalities and regional governments for whom we serve. We wish all our new readers from Billerica and all of our long-time readers a restful period at this start to the holiday season.

Many municipalities have been hit with cryptocurrency scams or heard from citizens who have suffered from such scams. The Attorney General will be hosting a Webinar on Zoom on December 3, 2025, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm with members of the AG’s Financial Services and Civil Investigations Divisions. The office would like to get questions beforehand, which you can submit when you register . The AG’s Webinars are always educational and well-run, so I encourage you to sign up.

Many towns have just completed special Town Meetings and before we know it, annual Town Meeting season will be here. We notice that some of the same confusion or misunderstanding on certain rules of procedure recur, so we address them here. If you have one you would like us to address, please send it along and we will provide an update.    Moderator calls passage of vote by 2/3rds. G.L. c. 39, § 15 provides that if a supermajority vote is required for a motion to pass, the v

We don’t often get appellate court analysis of the calculation of paid military leave, so the Appeals Court decision in Driscoll v. City of Melrose , No. 24-P-1114 (Nov. 21, 2025) is instructive. The facts were undisputed. For municipalities that have accepted the statute, G.L. c. 33, § 59(a) requires municipal employers to pay the full salary to an employee on military service for up to “40 days in any federal fiscal year,” with a day meaning “any 24-hour period regardless