[MassHistPres] Mullin Rule applicability

[Gretchen Schuler]

Our town adopted the Mullin Rule for most boards three years ago for ZBA, Health, ConComm and Planning Board.  The HDC was not included at the time - town counsel attended an HDC meeting recently and recommended that HDC be included in Mullin Rule so an article has been presented for Town Meeting to extend Mullin Rule to HDC.  I

Comments in warrant for "Accept Law Allowing Historic District Commission Members to Miss One Session of Adjudicatory Hearings" are as follows:

This article allows the Historic District Commission members to miss one session of adjudicatory hearings and still vote on the matter.  A similar article was approved by the November 2006 Special Town Meeting to accept this law for the Board of Appeals, Board of Health, Conservation Commission and Planning Board.  At that time the Historic District Commission did not ask to be included in the article.  

 

As background, adjudicatory hearings, held by local boards, are those concerning land use questions, jobs, licenses and permits.  Citizens must have proper notice, have the right to be heard, to be accompanied by an attorney, and the decisions of local boards can be appealed to state agencies and / or to the courts.  In August 2006 the State modified Chapter 39 adding Section 23D stating that a "member would not be disqualified from voting on a matter solely due to that member's absence from no more than a single session of the hearing at which testimony or other evidence is received.  Before such vote, the member shall certify in writing that he has examined all evidence received at the missed session, which evidence shall include an audio or video recording of the missed session or transcript thereof.  The written certification shall be part of the record of the hearing.  Nothing in this section shall change, replace, negate or otherwise supersede the applicable quorum requirements."  Prior to that date, the rule was that a board member cannot vote on a matter before the board if the member missed any sessions of the hearing concerning the matter.



Hope that is helpful.



Gretchen Schuler

Wayland HDC

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tucker, Jonathan 
  To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu 
  Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 4:32 PM
  Subject: [MassHistPres] Mullin Rule applicability


  For those among you who have adopted the Mullin Rule, who were the local "boards, committees or commissions holding adjudicatory hearings" to which it applied--i.e., what's the range?  We're contemplating this for our spring Town Meeting, and are trying to get a handle on just who among our many numerous boards/committees who hold public hearings are actually holding adjudicatory hearings vs. other any other kind.  We're pretty sure about the core of zoning/subdivision/wetland bodies and about our Select Board, but would this apply to school committees, personnel boards, boards of public works?  Where will it all end?  [Must be Friday.]



  Jonathan Tucker

  Planning Director

  Town Hall, 4 Boltwood Ave.

  Amherst, MA  01002

  (413) 259-3040

  (413) 259-2410 [fax]

  tuckerj at amherstma.gov   





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