Brookline Select Board keeps stipend petition intact and approves annual-town-meeting warrant

The Brookline Select Board on March 6 voted to execute an amended annual town meeting warrant and agreed not to split a petitioned resolution seeking stipends for the Select Board and the School Committee into separate warrant articles before town meeting.

Why it matters: The decision preserves the signers’ original filing and leaves the procedural option to separate the questions to town meeting members themselves, a step the board and town counsel said is the clearest legal path when a single petition document contains multiple subjects.

Town staff described the warrant filings for May’s town meeting, noting 26 filed warrant articles in the posted draft (the board agreed to amend the warrant to the count it considered correct before executing it). The petition at issue would have created separate stipend measures for the Select Board and the School Committee; some members said a split could change what voters understood when they signed the original petition.

"When the petitioners gathered signatures, people sign the petitions because it was a stipend increase for both the select board and the school committee, and they tied those things together," said Paul Warren.

John Van Schaoyak said he favored following procedure rather than altering petition structure now: "I definitely think we should reject the notion of splitting this article," he said, adding concern about the appearance of the board sponsoring changes that affect its own pay.

Town counsel Joe advised the board that the controlling legal question is whether the subjects are "germane" to each other and recommended keeping the petition together on the warrant. He suggested the simplest and more legally secure approach is a motion at town meeting to "divide the question," allowing separate debate and votes once the meeting convenes: "If you want to split it, I would suggest you do it at the time of debate because there's a motion to kinda divide the question," he said.

Town staff confirmed the petition document was submitted as a single filing with one set of signatures: "So the resolution was in all in 1 document, and so the signatures are for both," staff said.

Chair Bernard Green moved to approve the warrant "as amended." The board took a roll-call vote; the transcript records affirmative responses associated with the names John Van Schaoyak, Paul Warren, David Perlman and Michael Rubinstein, and the chair recorded his own aye vote. The board instructed staff to amend the warrant count and to carry the combined petition through to town meeting unless the petitioners or town meeting members moved to divide the question at that forum.

The Select Board’s action preserves petitioners’ filing as submitted and leaves the substantive choice—whether to separate the stipend measures—to town meeting debate.