Town Edition
Essex County
Newbury, Massachusetts
Photo: Pvmoutside, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On an October night in 2009, a hall full of Newbury voters agreed to spend $135,000 of the town’s own money, raised from selling town land, to put sand back on a Plum Island beach the Atlantic had been carrying away. That is the whole machine in one vote. There is no mayor and no city council here. There is an open Town Meeting, where any registered voter can stand up and decide what the ocean, the schools, and the budget are worth. This guide shows you how to get into that room, who runs the town between meetings, and where an ordinary resident can push on a decision.
Newbury at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Newbury.
- County: Essex. Newbury sits on the Atlantic coast of Essex County, made up of three villages, Old Town at its center, Byfield inland along the Parker River, and Plum Island on the barrier beach. It borders Newburyport, West Newbury, Groveland, Georgetown, and Rowley.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Tracy Blais.
- Schools: the Triton Regional School District, shared with Rowley and Salisbury, about 2,076 students, led by Superintendent Brian Forget.
How Newbury’s Government Works
Newbury runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all. Every registered voter in Newbury is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a five-member Select Board to set policy between meetings and send representatives to the regional School Committee that oversees the schools. The Select Board hires a professional Town Administrator to run the town day to day. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, the direction is set by the Select Board, and the daily work is carried out by the Town Administrator.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Newbury is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Select Board
Five members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and hire and supervise the Town Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Select Board. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
A regional committee elected by the voters of Newbury, Rowley, and Salisbury. It sets school policy, approves the district budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the five members of the Select Board and Newbury’s seats on the regional School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Administrator and decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
- You take part: pre-register at 16. A pre-registrant is on the list but is not allowed to vote yet. Once you turn 18 that designation comes off on its own and you are a registered voter in Newbury, which makes you a member of Town Meeting with a vote on the floor. If you never pre-registered, register with the Town Clerk, and do it well ahead: the rolls close at 5 p.m. on the tenth day before any election or Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 7 pm at Town Hall, and the agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is warned each spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait, as it did for the Plum Island beach in 2009.
- Town elections: Newbury votes in the spring on a May cycle. Select Board seats are three-year terms, staggered so a couple are on the ballot each year.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with the primary and general in the fall.
Explore the Newbury Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Newbury History1635, Byfield, and Plum Island
- DemographicsWho lives in Newbury
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataTriton Regional schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected, and neither one sits on Beacon Hill. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. The sheriff is elected by the voters of Essex County. The district attorney is elected by the voters of a prosecution district, and Massachusetts draws eleven of those across its fourteen counties, so a district attorney’s territory does not always follow a county line. Both appear on your ballot in Newbury. Now you know what to look for.
Massachusetts elects fourteen sheriffs, one for each county, and eleven district attorneys, one for each prosecution district. The job is the same everywhere: the charging decisions, the jail. Look up any town in the state and see who holds these two offices there.
Your First Civic Action in Newbury
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard in your own town. Here is how to take a real concern to the people who decide.
- Pick the right body. Town policy, roads, and police or fire go to the Select Board. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 7 pm at Town Hall, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Five Select Board members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. Meetings are open to the public and residents may address the board. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken light, or a downed limb to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: Newbury Municipal Offices, 12 Kent Way, Suite 101, Byfield, MA 01922. Town Clerk 978-465-0862 ext. 315.
- Agendas & minutes: posted in advance on the town website at newburyma.gov.
- Public schools: the Triton Regional School District, 112 Elm Street, Byfield, 978-465-2397, tritonschools.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.