Town Government
Reading Select Board
About the Board
The Select Board is elected town-wide, so every Reading voter helps choose all five, and each serves a three-year term on an overlapping schedule that puts a couple of seats on the ballot each spring. The board sets town policy, signs the warrants that decide what Town Meeting gets to vote on, appoints residents to many town boards, and hires and supervises the Town Manager who runs the town day to day. When a daily problem becomes town policy, this is the room where it happens: it was the Select Board’s July 2026 vote that put the $6.5 million override question on the November ballot.
- Sets policy and direction for the whole town.
- Hires the Town Manager and holds the manager accountable.
- Controls the warrant, deciding what business reaches Town Meeting for a vote.
Board Members
All five members are elected town-wide, and the board chooses its own Chair and Vice Chair. In the April 7, 2026 town election, Karen Gately Herrick won a third term and Salvatore Bramante won the board’s other open seat.
Melissa Murphy
Karen Rose-Gillis
Christopher Haley
Karen Gately Herrick
Salvatore Bramante
The town routes contact to board members through the Select Board office at Town Hall, 781-942-9043. The current roster and agendas are posted at readingma.gov.
Meetings & How to Participate
- Where: Town Hall, 16 Lowell Street, with the schedule and agendas posted on the town website.
- Agendas & minutes: posted in advance at readingma.gov.
- Public comment: residents may address the board. Check the agenda for the procedure.
- Town Meeting: for the budget and bylaws, the deciding vote belongs to the representative Town Meeting members elected from your precinct.
Sources
Reading Select Board (readingma.gov). Verified August 2026.
April 7, 2026 election results (The Reading Post). Verified August 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.