Town meeting moderator

Town Meeting Moderator is an elected three-year term that officiates and runs Town Meeting. The Moderator determines how long people can speak for, who can sign up to speak and the order of speakers during Town Meeting. They appoint the Advisory Committee, Committee on Town Organization and Structure and others. The Moderator also instructs new TMMs and gives information to TMMs about procedures and articles.

Though the Moderator is supposedly an unbiased position, community activist Ryan Black explained that it’s often more complicated.

“Town Meeting Moderator has a lot of power over how accessible Town Meeting is to the larger public,” Black said. “There’s a lot of parliamentary procedures and protocols to follow,” Black said. “Essentially, how those rules are laid out and how they are enforced and how they are implemented is largely at the discretion of the Town Meeting Moderator.”

Sandy Gadsby has run unopposed for Moderator since the year 2000. This election, after 27 years of holding the position, he is stepping down. There are two new candidates running for the Moderator position, Scott Ananian and Kate Poverman. 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.