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Municipal votes · 2026–2027 Board

Belmont Select Board

How the Belmont Select Board voted, from the Select Board’s official minutes. 3 Select Board members elected townwide for three-year terms. On April 9, 2026 the board appointed Taylor Yates as Chair and Carol Berberian as Vice-Chair, with Matthew Taylor as member, effective July 1, 2026 (3-0). The September 21, 2026 minutes are the first posted from this term; they still carry the old officer heading (“Matthew Taylor, Chair / Taylor Yates, Vice-Chair”) while the text refers to “Chair Yates” and “Vice-Chair Berberian.” The end date is a placeholder. Covers 1 meetings so far, September 21 to September 21, 2026.

A monthly email on what it voted on, starting in November.

What does the Select Board do? It is the town’s executive board. It prepares the Town Meeting warrant (the list of articles voters decide), appoints members of many town boards, hires the town’s top staff, signs warrants to pay town bills, and grants licenses and permits.

Town Meeting, not the Select Board, votes the town budget and town bylaws.

Sources: Massachusetts Select Board Handbook (MMA) · Mass. Division of Local Services: the town budget
Election Day · Tuesday, Nov 3

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Vote Transparency Score

Belmont Select Board: 7 out of 10 · Mostly open

How easy Belmont makes it to see, online, how each member votes. It scores the town’s records, not any official. Checked October 11, 2026.

  • Minutes postedMinutes are posted for nearly every meeting more than three months old.Full points: 2/2
  • Each vote namedThe minutes name the members who vote no or abstain.Part points: 2/3
  • Posted quicklyMinutes are posted within about three months, but recent meetings are still missing.Part points: 1/2
  • Past years onlineSelect Board minutes from 2012 to today are online.Full points: 1/1
  • Readable textThe minutes are text you can search and copy.Full points: 1/1
  • Member photosThe town’s website does not show photos of the members.No points: 0/1
How the town can raise its score
  • Each vote named (+1): On any vote that isn’t unanimous, write how each member voted. For example: “Motion passed 3–2. Yes: Smith, Jones, Lee. No: Brown, Silva.” A roll call on split votes is the simplest way to do this.
  • Posted quickly (+1): Post minutes within 30 days. If approval takes longer, post a draft marked “Draft – not yet approved” and replace it later.
  • Member photos (+1): Show a photo of each member on the board’s web page, with their name, the date their term ends and how to contact them. A group photo of the members, with everyone named in the caption or on the same page, earns half a point.

How we score · Something wrong, or has the town made a change? Email info@massvoter.com and we’ll re-check.

A monthly email on its votes, starting in November. We'll also tell you if this score changes.

Board years

Coming up

From the agendas Belmont posts on its official site. Agendas can change; the posted agenda is the official one.

What Town Meeting decided

In Belmont, Town Meeting — not the Select Board — votes the town budget, bylaws and zoning. Here is what it did with each article, in the Town Clerk’s own words. Town Meeting members are elected by precinct; counts are from the town’s electronic voting.

Special Town Meeting · October 20, 2025 16 votes: 13 passed, 1 failed, 2 no action

Sessions: October 20 and October 22, 2025

Source: Town of Belmont 2025 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, October 20, 2025 - motions and votes (PDF pp. 396-402).

Special Town Meeting · July 23, 2025 3 votes: 3 passed

Sessions: July 23, 2025 (held by remote access)

Source: Town of Belmont 2025 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, July 23, 2025 - motions and votes (PDF p. 378).

Special Town Meeting · May 21, 2025 4 votes: 2 passed, 1 indefinitely postponed, 1 no action

Source: Town of Belmont 2025 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, May 21, 2025 - motions and votes (PDF pp. 352-353).

Annual Town Meeting · May 5, 2025 43 votes: 39 passed, 3 indefinitely postponed, 1 no action

Sessions: May 5, 7, 12, 19 and 21, 2025 (session dates as stated in the record)

Source: Town of Belmont 2025 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Annual Town Meeting, May 2025 - motions and votes (PDF pp. 257-269).

Special Town Meeting · March 3, 2025 3 votes: 1 passed, 1 passed as amended, 1 no action

Sessions: March 3, 2025 (held by remote access)

Source: Town of Belmont 2025 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, March 3, 2025 - motions and votes (PDF pp. 196-198).

Special Town Meeting · November 18, 2024 11 votes: 9 passed, 1 passed as amended, 1 indefinitely postponed

Sessions: Opened November 18, 2024; session dates after the first are not listed in the record

Source: Town of Belmont 2024 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, November 18, 2024 - motions and votes (PDF pp. 334-388).

Special Town Meeting · June 26, 2024 2 votes: 1 passed, 1 no action

Sessions: June 26, 2024 (held by remote access)

Source: Town of Belmont 2024 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, June 26, 2024 - motions and votes, attested by the Town Clerk (PDF pp. 275-276).

Special Town Meeting · June 5, 2024 3 votes: 2 passed, 1 no action

Source: Town of Belmont 2024 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, June 5, 2024 - motions and votes (PDF p. 267).

Annual Town Meeting · April 29, 2024 48 votes: 44 passed, 2 passed as amended, 2 no action

Sessions: Opened April 29, 2024 (Segment A) with a later budget segment (Segment B); session dates are not listed in the record

Source: Town of Belmont 2024 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Annual Town Meeting, April 29, 2024 - motions and votes (PDF pp. 249-262).

Special Town Meeting · January 22, 2024 2 votes: 2 passed

Sessions: January 22, 2024 (held by remote access)

Source: Town of Belmont 2024 Annual Town Report, Appendix A: Special Town Meeting, January 22, 2024 - motions and votes, attested by the Town Clerk (PDF p. 230).

Not here yet: Belmont's 2026 meetings (March 4 Special, May 4 Annual and May 18 Special Town Meetings) are not here because the Town Clerk has posted only electronic roll-call tallies for them, which do not say whether each motion passed; the November 16, 2026 Special Town Meeting has not happened yet.

Titles are short descriptions of each article from the official record; the quoted words are the Town Clerk’s. A vote at Town Meeting is not the final word on everything: some articles also need a ballot vote (such as a tax override) or the Attorney General’s approval (bylaws).

Members

✓ Every meeting 2025Matthew TaylorMember · At-large · at 1 of 1 meetings

"At X of Y meetings" counts the members the minutes list as present at the start of each meeting in this record. Members who step out are listed on each meeting page.

Attendance

From the official minutes: full-board meetings only (committee meetings are not counted). Members are counted only for meetings held while they served, and arriving late counts as attending. The minutes rarely say why a member was absent. Not shown: 2026, because too many of that year’s meetings are missing from the posted minutes.

A monthly email on its votes and who was there, starting in November.

Meetings

About missing minutes

Loaded: Belmont Select Board minutes from January 8, 2018 through September 21, 2026: 400 meetings and 3,612 votes. The town’s Agenda Center holds the board’s minutes back to 2012; MassVoter has loaded 2018 on. The board was the Board of Selectmen; the minutes switch to the name Select Board in the fall of 2019 (first on September 16, 2019), with both names used until the end of that year. Minutes from 2022 on are typed documents with searchable text; the 2018 to 2021 minutes are copier scans, and 219 of them had little or no text, so MassVoter read them with text recognition and checked where names or counts were unclear. Joint meetings with the School Committee, Warrant Committee, Board of Assessors and other boards are loaded when the Select Board voted as a board; only the Select Board’s votes are shown, and joint meetings where it took no vote of its own are left out. Not here: executive-session minutes; cancelled meetings and meetings without a quorum; site visits; meetings with an agenda but no posted minutes, among them May 11, June 3 and June 8, 2026; dates where the file posted belongs to another meeting or board (several 2018 Belmont High School Building Committee files, the April 30, 2018 evening slot, and repeated 2024 postings, each loaded once under its own date); and meetings after September 21, 2026 other than that one: the July 13, July 20, August 10, August 12 (with the Board of Assessors), August 31, September 9, September 28 and October 5, 2026 minutes are not posted yet. Belmont’s minutes usually say a motion “was seconded and passed unanimously” or “unanimously by roll call vote,” with an attendance list at the top (present, remote, absent); split votes give a count and name the member voting no or abstaining (“passed 2-1 with Ms. Berberian voting in opposition”). On a three-member board, a named no or abstention with the others voting yes names every vote. A count equal to the members present, or unanimous wording, is shown as every member present voting yes. Where the count and the names in the minutes disagree, or a split count names no one, we show the count only (17 votes), and where the minutes give no count or names (mostly 2018’s “The BOS voted in favor”) we show the result only (68 votes). Members who recused themselves or were out of the room are not shown in that vote; members who arrived late or left early are shown only in the votes they were there for. A motion with no recorded outcome is not counted as a vote. We will ask the town to confirm any noted vote.

Monday, September 21, 2026 · Regular meeting10 recorded votes, 0 with disagreementAll 3 members present

Votes where members disagreed

Most board votes are unanimous. These are the ones where at least one member voted no or abstained, newest first.

None.

From the Belmont Select Board’s official minutes, posted in the town’s Agenda Center (Select Board). We check every vote against the Select Board members present and quote the exact wording. MassVoter never grades or scores officials. Photos (the town’s website has no Select Board photos): The Belmontonian — Matthew Taylor and Carol Berberian (April 2026); Yates for Belmont campaign website — Taylor Yates. Cropped by MassVoter. Former members show initials.

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