East Longmeadow Town Council

Who Sits on the Council

Roster from the town’s own Town Council page, reconciled against the list of elected officials in the 2025 Annual Report and against the certified outcome of the June 2, 2026 town election.

President, Vice President and Clerk

At the first regularly scheduled meeting where the full Council is present, the Council chooses a President and a Vice President from its own membership, each for a one year term. The existing slate stays in place until that reorganization is finished, and the charter caps that gap at 30 days after the election. The Council may also reorganize itself at any point in the year by a supermajority vote.

The President prepares the agenda, presides at meetings, decides questions of order, and appoints the members of every Council committee, standing or special. The President votes on measures exactly like any other member. The Vice President takes over in the President’s absence. The Clerk of the Council is not a councilor at all: the charter gives that job to the Town Clerk, who notices every meeting to the members and the public and keeps the minutes.

How a Bylaw Passes

A proposed bylaw has to address one subject only and arrive in writing, in the exact form it would be adopted in. It gets published in a local newspaper, in full or in a reasonable synopsis, and it has to be available in the Town Clerk’s office, on the town bulletin board and on the town website at least seven days before its second reading. Every bylaw is read at two separate Council meetings, and the second of those is a public hearing advertised at least a week ahead.

Final passage takes an affirmative vote of a majority of the full Council, and some zoning changes take a supermajority. Every vote on a bylaw is a roll call, recorded in the minutes, so the record shows how each of the seven voted. An emergency bylaw needs the emergency defined and declared in a preamble, voted on separately and carried by a supermajority, and it repeals itself 60 days later unless the Council extends it.

Meetings, and Your Place in Them

• How often: the charter requires at least one regular meeting a month, at a time and place fixed by bylaw. In practice the Council has met on Tuesday evenings, usually twice a month.
• Special meetings: the President or any three councilors can call one, with 48 hours notice and a list of what will be acted on.
• Open, and open to you: every Council meeting and every subcommittee meeting is open to the public, and residents have a reasonable opportunity to speak at any of them. The Council may set time limits on public comment in its rules.
• Quorum: a majority of the full Council, which is four of the seven.
• The record: the Town Clerk keeps a full account of every proceeding, including a record of each vote, and it goes up soon after the meeting.

Vacancies

When a Council seat opens, the President has 30 days to call a special meeting, the vacancy is advertised in a local publication and on the town website, and the remaining councilors choose a replacement from among the town’s registered voters by a majority of the full Council. That appointee serves only until the next regular town election, when voters fill the seat themselves. If a regular election falls within 120 days, the seat is not filled by appointment at all and waits for the ballot.