Select Board
May 1, 2021
The Select Board is the executive branch of Town Meeting. It consists of five members, each with three-year terms, and holds authority over many town decisions and legislation. The Select Board appoints the town administrator, who controls the daily management of the town and creates and amends Warrant Articles. The Select Board also gives recommendations to Town Meeting on which Warrant Articles should pass or be amended.
Once Warrant Articles are passed, they make sure that they are implemented in the town. They review the town budget and give recommendations and guidelines to Town Meeting about the budget. They enforce bylaws and regulations put into place. They hold public hearings on important issues, represent Brookline in the general court and more.
Mautner-Mazlen said that she likes to visualize Town Meeting and the Select Board in relation to the federal government.
“If you think of the federal government, there’s the legislative, the executive and the judicial (branches). Judicial is covered by the County, legislative is Town Meetings. The Select Board is also there, and they’re sort of the executive. They are in charge of running the town government,” Mautner-Mazlen said.
Past Select Board decisions have included deciding not to implement the recommendations of the Task Force to Re-Imagine Policing. This decision continued the use of police officers in Brookline Public Schools, non-violent crisis and mental-health related calls and the Walk and Talk program. It prevented a social services department and civilian oversight board from being formed.
The results of Brookline Select Board elections have always held a lot of weight for the future of the town. In 2019, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visited Brookline to speak in support of Raul Fernandez’s campaign for Select Board.
There are two Select Board seats up for election. There are two incumbents (Bernard Greene and Nancy Heller) and three new candidates (Miriam Aschkenasy, Zoe Lynn, and Donelle O’Neal) running. To learn more about each candidate, watch the Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity Candidate (BRJE) Forum and the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum.
