Chapter 41

Section 49A. The auditor, accountant, or officer having similar duties, of a city or town, may in writing appoint, with the approval of the mayor or the selectmen thereof, an assistant, who shall be sworn to the faithful performance of his duties, and a record shall be made of hi…

Section 4A. Except as otherwise expressly provided, a district board, if authorized by vote of the district at an annual district meeting, or a town board may, if authorized by vote of the town at an annual town meeting, appoint any member thereof to another town or district offi…

Section 5. The voting list shall be used and the name of every person voting shall be checked thereon, in the election of all town officers whose election is by law required to be by ballot; but in the election of other town officers, the meeting shall determine whether the votin…

Section 50. The auditors of a town shall examine the books and accounts of all its officers and committees intrusted with the receipt, custody or expenditure of money, and all original bills and vouchers on which money has been or may be paid from its treasury. They shall have fr…

Section 51. An auditor may notify a person to whom money is due from the town that a certain designated amount, which may be either the whole or a part of the money so due, is payable to him upon application to an officer named in the notice, and, unless payment is refused upon s…

Section 52. All accounts rendered to or kept in the departments of any city shall be subject to the inspection of the city auditor or officer having similar duties, and in towns they shall be subject to the inspection of the selectmen. The auditor or officer having similar duties…

Section 53. Town auditors shall at least once every year, and so much oftener as they deem necessary, audit the accounts of the trustees of any property the principal or income of which, in whole or in part, was bequeathed or given in trust for public uses for the benefit of the …

Section 54. Whenever any officer of the commonwealth, or of a county, city or town, makes a payment of public money to the treasurer of a city or town in the commonwealth, he shall furnish at the same time to the auditor of such city or town, or to the town accountant, if there i…

Section 54A. The auditor or similar officer in cities and the town accountant, if any, otherwise the town treasurer in towns, shall notify the assessors, not later than August first in each year, of the total receipts of the preceding fiscal year, except from taxes, loans and tru…

Section 55. Any town may authorize the selectmen to appoint a town accountant, who shall perform the duties and possess the powers of town auditors as defined in sections fifty to fifty-three, inclusive. In towns so authorizing the appointment of a town accountant the office of t…

Section 56. The selectmen and all boards, committees, heads of departments and officers authorized to expend money shall approve and transmit to the town accountant as often as once each month all bills, drafts, orders and pay rolls chargeable to the respective appropriations of …

Section 57. The town accountant shall keep a complete set of books wherein shall be entered the amount of each specific appropriation, the amounts and purposes of expenditures made therefrom, the receipts from each source of income, the amount of each assessment levied, and the a…

Section 58. Whenever any appropriation shall have been expended or whenever, in the judgment of the town accountant, it appears that the liabilities incurred against any appropriation may be in excess of the unexpended balance thereof, he shall immediately notify the selectmen an…

Section 59. The selectmen and all boards, committees, heads of departments, or other officers of a town authorized by law to expend money shall furnish to the town accountant, or, if there is no town accountant, to the appropriation, advisory or finance committee, if any, otherwi…

Section 6. A town may, at a town meeting, vote that official ballots as defined in section one of chapter fifty shall thereafter be used therein; and may, at the annual town meeting or at a meeting held at least thirty days before the annual town meeting, by a two thirds vote res…

Section 60. The town accountant shall immediately upon the close of each calendar year compile statements in tabulated form showing the amounts appropriated and the amounts expended from each appropriation during the preceding fiscal year, the amounts appropriated for the current…

Section 61. The town accountant shall make an annual report, to be published as a town document, giving a statement of all receipts and expenditures of the town for the past financial year, including those of funds managed by trustees or commissioners for the town and showing als…

Section 61A. If the office of city auditor, city treasurer, city collector of taxes or other officer having charge of a city department is vacant, or if any such officer, because of disability or absence, is unable to perform his duties, the mayor, without confirmation by the cit…

Section 62. If a highway surveyor be chosen, he shall have the exclusive control of the ordinary repair of public ways in his town without being subject to the authority of the selectmen. If more than one highway surveyor be chosen, the selectmen shall annually, before May first,…

Section 63. A town may at an annual meeting if official ballots are not used, otherwise at a meeting held at least thirty days before the annual meeting, vote to elect in the following manner three road commissioners or three sewer commissioners, or both. It shall, at the annual …

Section 64. If road commissioners be chosen, they shall exclusively have the powers, perform the duties and be subject to the liabilities and penalties of selectmen and surveyors of highways relative to public ways, monuments at the termini and angles thereof, guide posts, sidewa…

Section 65. If sewer commissioners be chosen, they shall, as to sewers and drains, exclusively have the powers, perform the duties and be subject to the liabilities and penalties of selectmen and road commissioners.

Section 66. In a town which has not authorized the election of a road commissioner or commissioners or a surveyor or surveyors of highways, or which, having a road commissioner or commissioners or a surveyor or surveyors of highways, has voted in accordance with section twenty-on…

Section 67. The selectmen of two or more towns may unitedly, subject to the approval of the department of highways, appoint and fix the compensation of a superintendent of streets who shall exercise the same powers and duties and be otherwise subject to the same provisions of law…

Section 68. The superintendent of streets shall, under the direction of the selectmen, have full charge of all repairs and labor upon public ways and sidewalks, and, if no other provision is made, of repairs upon sewers and drains; and in relation to such matters he shall have th…

Section 69. If a town votes under section twenty-one to have its selectmen act as water and sewer boards, water commissioners or sewer commissioners, the selectmen may appoint a suitable person to act as superintendent of the water or sewer department or designate the superintend…

Section 69A. Any town establishing a water supply or water distributing system under authority of section thirty-nine A of chapter forty may establish a board of three water commissioners or authorize its selectmen to act as such. Such commissioners shall, in the first instance, …

Section 69B. The water commissioners, or the selectmen authorized to act as such, in a town establishing a water supply or water distributing system under authority of section thirty-nine A of chapter forty shall have exclusive charge and control of the water department and water…

Section 69C. By vote of a town meeting called for the purpose in any town at least ninety days before an annual town meeting, or, in the case of a town which voted thereon and the vote was not in the affirmative, upon request by petition of ten per cent of the qualified voters of…

Section 69D. Any town which has accepted the provisions of sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, shall elect in the following manner a board of public works, hereinafter called the board, to consist of three members. The initial members thereof shall be elected, one t…

Section 69E. The board shall appoint and fix the compensation of a superintendent of public works, who shall exercise and perform, under the supervision and direction of the board, such of the powers, rights and duties transferred to it under section twenty-one or section sixty-n…

Section 69F. Any town which has accepted the provisions of sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, may, after the expiration of three years from the date of such acceptance, upon petition of ten per cent of the qualified voters of the town filed with the selectmen at le…

Section 69G. Every city or town may establish an office of lands and natural resources. Said office shall have charge of such lands as may be committed to its care and may perform such maintenance and improvement work on other municipal lands as may be permitted by the board, dep…

Section 7. If a town votes that official ballots shall be used for the election of town officers, it shall at the same meeting determine what officers, in addition to those required to be elected by ballot, shall thereafter be chosen by official ballot, and determine the number a…

Section 70. Every city and every town having a population of more than ten thousand at the last preceding national census shall, and towns having a population of less than ten thousand may, create a planning board, which shall make careful studies of the resources, possibilities …

Section 71. Every planning board shall make a report annually to the city council or to the annual town meeting, giving information regarding the condition of the town and any plans or proposals for its development and estimates of the cost thereof. Every such planning board shal…

Section 72. Cities and towns may make ordinances and by-laws for carrying out the purposes of section seventy and of sections eighty-one A to eighty-one GG, inclusive, and they may appropriate money therefor. The planning board of a town, established under section seventy or corr…

Section 73. In cities which accept this section by vote of the city council or have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the mayor, with the approval of the city council, may in January in any year appoint three inhabitants thereof to be a board of survey. Of the me…

Section 74. After the establishment of a board of survey no person shall open a private way for public use without first submitting to said board suitable plans thereof in accordance with such rules and regulations as the board may prescribe. In cities such plans shall be so prep…

Section 75. The board of survey may, and in cities, upon the vote of the planning board and the city council, shall, from time to time cause plans to be made of such territory or sections of lands in the city or town as the board of survey or the planning board may deem necessary…

Section 76. The board of survey may from time to time make new plans in place of plans filed in accordance with the two preceding sections, or make changes on plans so filed; provided, that any action involving new plans or changes in plans already duly attested and filed shall b…

Section 77. The powers of the city council or of the selectmen in regard to highways shall not be abridged by sections seventy-three to eighty-one, inclusive, in any manner, except as provided herein, and the powers conferred by said sections shall be in addition to other powers …

Section 78. No register of deeds shall record any plan showing thereon proposed ways in any town having a board of survey, unless there is endorsed thereon a certificate of said board, or other proper officer by it designated, that all laws applicable to such plan have been compl…

Section 79. Boards of survey, their officers and agents may, so far as they deem it necessary in carrying out sections seventy-three to eighty-one, inclusive, enter upon any lands and there make examinations and surveys, and place and maintain monuments and marks.

Section 8. At any meeting for the choice of town officers in a town not using official ballots, no ballots shall be received by the moderator unless presented for deposit in the ballot box, open and unfolded, by the voter in person, and so that the moderator can know that only on…

Section 80. A town which accepts section seventy-three or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws or has accepted any special act authorizing the creation of a board of survey therein may establish, in the manner provided for the laying out of town ways, the exterio…