LONGMEADOW – On Dec. 28 the Longmeadow Select Board held a special meeting at 5 p.m. to close and sign the Special Town Meeting Warrant. Longmeadow’s Special Town Meeting will be held on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Longmeadow High School gymnasium.

On Dec. 24, Longmeadow Select Board Chair Mark Gold wrote to Reminder Publishing, explaining that as of that time, there would be two certified citizen’s petitions that will be included as articles for consideration on the Jan. 17 Special Town Meeting Warrant. Following the release of the Special Town Meeting Warrant on Jan. 2, the Warrant contains three articles, which are all citizens’ petitions.With that said, the third article is an almost identical writing of the first article, however it was submitted as a revision. The difference, residents should note, is in item F.

Article one is lengthy, and will soon be available on longmeadow.org for the public to read. Article One states, “To see if the Town will vote to amend the Home Rule Charter to grant registered voters the power to recall elected officials in the Town of Longmeadow according to the petition as printed on the handout or amended at Town Meeting, or take any other action relative thereto.”

Gold explained in his email to Reminder Publishing, “The first petition article would require the town clerk to submit to the State Legislature a bill that would grant registered voters the power to recall specified elected officials (school committee) in the Town of Longmeadow. The proposed article to be considered by Town Meeting does not authorize a recall election or in itself add a recall provision of the town charter or by–laws.”

He continued, “If passed, the article would have the Town Clerk submit to the General Court of Massachusetts (the state legislature) what is often referred to as a Home Rule Petition – one that would insert a tenth article into the town charter. The details of the proposed Charter Article X are included in the warrant petition and the details of that article should be read by residents as it specifies the process by which a recall election can occur.”

Gold also noted that his explanations were neither an endorsement for or against the petition articles, and was merely to inform.

In the revised version of Article One, presented on the warrant as Article Three, the only difference lies in item F. In this item, Article Three changes from 30 days to 45 days to recall petition sheets. Additionally, the revision states that the sheets will contain signatures, names and street addresses of at least 15 percent of the total number of registered voters in the town including at least 50 registered voters from each precinct. This is a contrast to Article One, as Article One suggested there would be signatures, names and street addresses of at least 75 percent of the total number of persons who voted at the most recent annual town election.

Article Two on the Special Town Meeting warrant is to see if the Town will vote to transfer from the 2019 School Operations Budget the sum of $2,000,000 or a greater or lesser sum as amended at Town Meeting, to an account under control of the Select Board called the Select Board Reserve for school expenditures. Transfers from said account would only be made by a majority vote of the Select Board following a written request of the School Committee detailing the reasons for the fund transfer request. A majority vote of the School Committee would also have to occur prior to writing the letter.

The Special Town Meeting warrant will soon be available to the public for review online, prior to the Jan. 17 meeting.