History of Lexington Town Meeting
Lexington was incorporated on March 31, 1713. Six days later the first Town Meeting was held. Records of public meetings dating back to 1692 are kept by the Town Clerk in the Town Office Building. Town Meeting is a New England phenomenon and is found only in those six states. The first Massachusetts towns were governed by informal gatherings of freemen. Attendance at Town Meetings was compulsory and absentees were fined. As town business became more complex, the townspeople "selected" certain citizens (Selectmen) to carry on the town's business between Town Meetings. When attendance was no longer compulsory at Town Meetings, it became important to define what matters might be acted on at these sessions, so residents would know in advance of anything that might interest them. This notice became the Warrant, containing the articles of business to be taken up at each Town Meeting. The Board of Selectmen and other Boards set policy for the town; in contrast, the Town Meeting is the legislative body of local government.
As population increased, many towns found it difficult to conduct business through a Town Meeting open to the participation of all citizens. The first change in the form of town government came in 1821 when the Massachusetts legislature voted to allow municipal or city governments to be set up in towns of 12,000 or more inhabitants. Lexington has preferred to retain the Town Meeting form of government. More than 100 years later, in 1926, the state constitution was again modified to allow towns of more than 6,000 inhabitants to have Representative Town Meetings. Lexington was one of the first towns to adopt the Representative Town Meeting, voting to accept this form of government in 1929.
In the Lexington's first Representative Town Meeting, held in 1930, there were 51 members from each of four precincts, for a total of 204. In 1956 the Town was redistricted into six precincts, and the number of elected Town Meeting Members was set at 33 per precinct for a total of 198. In 1973, redistricting resulted in nine precincts with 21 elected Town Meeting Members per precinct, for a total of 189.
Of the 303 towns in Massachusetts, 42, including Lexington, have the Representative Town Meeting form of government in which the voters delegate legislative powers to elected representatives, yet reserve the right to speak at Town Meeting. The right of referendum is also retained as a means of challenging an affirmative vote of Town Meeting.