MODERATOR

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Tonya Santaniello

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Term: Elected for 1 year at the annual town meeting

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The Moderator also serves on the Middlefield Finance Committee as an Ex-officio non voting member to familiarize themselves with the financial issues that will be on the warrants for town meetings. Small Towns in New England practice the purest form of democracy found anywhere. Once a year at the annual town meeting and several more times during the year at special town meetings the towns registered voters convene in the Town Hall to vote on the towns operating and capital budgets, proposed bylaw changes, and any other special issue put before the town. In Middlefield the Moderator guides his actions by the parliamentary handbook used by most Massachusetts moderators known as Town Meeting Time. The proceedings of Middlefield Town Meetings are governed by the Town‘s By-Laws and Town Meeting Time. The Annual Middlefield Town Meeting is held on the first Saturday in May.

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• The meeting is chaired by the Town Moderator, whose job it is to present the articles scheduled for discussion, regulate debate, and count the vote.

• The Moderator decides all questions of order and makes public declaration of all votes.

• All persons address the Meeting by leave of the Moderator and if anyone, after due warning, persists in disorderly conduct, the Moderator has the authority to have the person removed.

• To make a motion, to ask a question, or to be heard in debate, an attendee must raise a hand and, when recognized by the Moderator, rise to speak.

• The speaker must then identify himself (herself) and state where he (she) lives.

• Everything is addressed to the Moderator, or through the Moderator to the person who should respond, and should be confined to the motion under consideration.

• It is always an attendee‘s privilege to ask procedural questions of the Moderator.

• The Moderator states the subject matter of each article, a motion is made by a member of the Middlefield Finance Committee concerning this article or by the person responsible for the warrant article.

• For a Middlefield Town Meeting to act, a quorum of 12 registered voters must be present. The Moderator cannot start the deliberations of the Middlefield Town Meeting until the Middlefield Town Clerk informs him (her) that a quorum is present.

• Main motions are the essential motions basic to action contemplated by the Middlefield Town Meeting all other motions revolve around them. The Moderator requires that any amendment to the Main Motion be presented to the podium in writing before it may be considered by the Middlefield Town Meeting.
   

See the General By-Laws of the Town of Middlefield for additional information on the Middlefield Town Meeting.