1946 Pictorial-Annual Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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PREFACE Except for the policeman directing traffic at the corner, the fire station down the street, the teachers that Johnny and Mary talk about, and the annual tax bill that always seems larger than expected, most of us have so little contact with our town government that we are largely unfamiliar with its functions and the mass of behind -the -scene details that make Lexington one of the better towns in which to live. In this report, to give you a clearer understanding of how your town operates, we shall go behind the scenes with our elective and appointive officers to see what makes Lexington go as a town and how the separate units of our town form of government fit together. * The New England Town Meeting is the most demo- cratic form of government, and in its purest form all the voters in a town are privi- leged to take part and vote on every item in the warrant, including appropriations. As towns increased in size, however, it was found that such Town Meetings tended to become unwieldy, especially when such items as new buildings were to be voted on, and so the Limited Town Meeting was devised. It is this form of Town Meeting that is used in Lexington, and its vote determines the course your town government takes, from selectmen to public works labor. Under the Limited Town Meeting form, Lexington is divided into four precincts, each with 51 Town Meeting Members. At each annual town election, in addition to the Selectmen and other elective town officers, 17 Town Meeting Members are chosen in each precinct for three-year terms, and those elected, together with the 34 elected the two previous years in each precinct make up the 204 Town Meeting Members who, along with the Selectmen and certain other officials, as specified by law, are the only ones that vote at the annual, and special, Town Meetings. Any townsman, whether a Town Meeting Member or not, may speak freely at Town Meeting, but he may not vote, unless elected from one of the precincts. Even under the limited form of town government each citizen has almost the same privileges of the ballot box as in the old days of the full Town Meeting for any action of the Limited Town Meeting may be approved or disapproved at a special town election that must be called on petition of 250 voters of the town, provided it is filed in proper form and with the proper officials within five days of the Limited Town Meeting action. ■ AH operating data m thrs booker are drawn from there] oris of the town officers and those of you who are interested in the dcrailed statistics of the uarious departments, commissions and communes will find them available in derva at the office of the `Down Clerk.