Town Government
Brookline Select Board
About the Select Board
The Select Board is the closest thing Brookline has to an executive. Its five members are elected at large by the whole town to staggered three-year terms, so one or two seats are on the ballot in most years. The board sets policy between Town Meetings, grants the licenses that let businesses open, signs the town’s contracts, and hires and oversees the Town Administrator who runs the departments. This is where a daily problem becomes town policy: a flooded street, a stalled housing project, the tax rate on your family’s home. What the board cannot do alone is spend money. That power belongs to Town Meeting.
- Sets policy and grants licenses for the town between Town Meetings.
- Appoints the Town Administrator and evaluates the person who runs the town day to day.
- Brings warrant articles and a proposed budget to Town Meeting for a vote.
Select Board Members
The board chooses one of its own as Chair to run its meetings and another as Vice Chair. The current Chair is David Pearlman and the Vice Chair is Michael Rubenstein. Amanda Zimmerman and Anthony Buono won their seats in the May 5, 2026 town election.
David Pearlman
Michael Rubenstein
Bernard Greene
Amanda Zimmerman
Anthony Buono
Reach the full board through the Select Board office at 617-730-2200 or selectboard@brooklinema.gov, Town Hall, 333 Washington Street, 6th Floor.
Town Meeting: The Real Legislature
Brookline’s lawmaking body is not the Select Board, it is Town Meeting, and it is huge. Voters in each of the town’s 16 precincts elect Town Meeting Members, roughly 240 in all, who gather in the spring and fall to debate and vote the budget, the bylaws, and the major questions facing the town. This is one of the largest representative town meetings in the country, and a seat in it is an elected office an ordinary resident can win on a local ballot. If you want to change something in Brookline, the path almost always runs through a warrant article and a Town Meeting vote.
Meetings & How to Participate
- When: the Select Board generally meets Tuesday evenings in the Select Board Hearing Room on the sixth floor of Town Hall, 333 Washington Street, with a remote option.
- Agendas & minutes: posted in advance on the town website at brooklinema.gov.
- Public comment: residents may speak on agenda items. Check the agenda for the sign-up procedure.
- Watch: meetings air on Brookline Interactive Group and stream online.
Sources
Brookline Select Board (brooklinema.gov). Verified July 2026.
What this seat decides
Your Select Board
Streets and sidewalks, licenses, a crosswalk or a speed limit, and how something gets onto the Town Meeting warrant. Ask the engineering department who owns the road before you write: a numbered state route is MassDOT's rather than your town's, and your State Representative is who can ask them. It runs the town day to day, or hires the Town Manager or Town Administrator who does, and new bylaws are voted by Town Meeting rather than by the board.
Public hearings and meetings are where residents shape town decisions.