Where Residents Serve
East Longmeadow Boards & Commissions
Fifteen Boards, and Every Seat Is Appointed
When East Longmeadow rewrote its charter it made a deliberate trade. The old three member executive board was dissolved, the remaining elected boards became appointed ones, and the only offices left on a ballot are the Town Council and the School Committee. What residents got in exchange is a single, published route into every one of the remaining seats: the Town Manager appoints them, and the charter requires that every vacancy be advertised in a local newspaper, on the town bulletin board and on the town website, with the Manager actively recruiting candidates.
Six of those appointments carry a Council check. Names for the Board of Assessors, the Board of Public Works, the Library Trustees, the Planning Board, the Housing Authority and the Board of Health take effect unless a majority of the Council rejects them by roll call within 45 days. Board and commission seats are open to residents only. Committee seats are open to residents and non-residents, with preference given to residents.
The Boards
| Board or commission | Size and term | Chair |
|---|---|---|
| Board of Assessors | 3 members, 3 year terms | Martin Grudgen |
| Board of Health | 3 members, 3 year terms | Christine Johnston |
| Board of Library Trustees | 6 members, 3 year terms | Amy Pawle |
| Board of Registrars of Voters | 3 members plus the Town Clerk, 3 year terms | |
| Broadband Committee | 5 members, 3 year terms | |
| Commission for People with Disabilities | 7 members, 3 year terms | |
| Community Preservation Committee | 9 members, 3 year terms, four of them at large | William Fonseca |
| Conservation Commission | 7 members, 3 year terms | Elizabeth Stoughton |
| Council on Aging | 9 members, 3 year terms | Joseph Barker |
| Cultural Council | 9 members, 3 year terms | JoAnn Asselin |
| Historical Commission | 7 members, 3 year terms | Christine Devlin |
| Housing Authority | 4 members plus 1 gubernatorial appointment, 5 year terms | Joseph D’Ascoli |
| Planning Board | 5 members, 5 year terms | Russell Denver |
| Recreation Commission | 5 members, 3 year terms | William Rinaldi |
| Zoning Board of Appeals | 5 members, 3 year terms | Mark J. Beglane |
Membership and chairs as of December 31, 2025, from the town’s 2025 Annual Report. Chairs turn over on their own schedule, so check the town’s Boards and Commissions page for the current officer before you write to one.
Two Boards Worth Knowing By Name
- Planning Board. Five members on five year terms, the special permit granting authority, and the sole approver of residential, commercial and business subdivisions. The Planning and Community Development staff prepares the applications it decides.
- Zoning Board of Appeals. A quasi-judicial body under Chapter 40A of the General Laws. It hears appeals of the Building Commissioner’s decisions, interprets unclear provisions of the zoning bylaw, and decides applications to permit structures that vary from the zoning rules.
How to Get On One
The town publishes a Board, Committee and Commission Member Application, and the Town Manager is required to advertise openings rather than wait for names to arrive. Several seats in the table above sat vacant at the end of 2025, including two on the Commission for People with Disabilities and one at large seat on the Community Preservation Committee, which is the ordinary condition of a volunteer board in a town of 16,430 people. If a subject on this list is one you care about, the application is a short form and the vacancy list is public.
These seats are how an ordinary resident ends up with a vote on a real decision.
MassCivics last checked this page on October 20, 2026.
Sources
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Board of Health, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Board of Library Trustees, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Boards & Commissions, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Community Preservation Committee, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Conservation Commission, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Cultural Council, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Historical Commission, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Housing Authority, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Planning Board, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Recreation Commission, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of East Longmeadow, Zoning Board of Appeals, as of October 2026.