The words the record uses
A meeting says “warrant article” and “free cash” dozens of times and never stops to say what they mean. These are words the record uses and seldom explains — 47 entries, 47 of them said on this edition’s tapes — each in plain language, with where it applies, the public source to read, and how often the record says it, town by town. Every count opens the search that finds it.
The definitions were written with Claude (Anthropic, claude-opus-5-5) — on Anthropic’s servers, through the coding assistant the developers used while writing this code; never at press time, never in your browser. Each names the public source it draws on, and where the two differ the source is the authority. No person has yet read them against their sources — until one has, read each entry as a first draft and its source as the definition. A correction is dated beside the entry it changes. The counts are the record’s own, whole-word over the transcripts of the towns each word belongs to: no model counts them. Our AI Constitution keeps the ledger.
Who decides
Select Board
BrooklineMassachusetts
The town’s elected executive: in Brookline, five members elected to three-year terms. It calls Town Meeting and writes its warrant, hires the Town Administrator, sets the budget’s guidelines, appoints most boards, grants licenses and serves as the police commissioners. Many towns once called it the Board of Selectmen.
read the source Brookline — Select Board
on the record Brookline: 835 times in 18 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 2 times in 1 meeting, first on October 19, 2026
Town Meeting
BrooklineMassachusetts
The town’s legislature. Brookline’s is a representative Town Meeting: 255 members elected by precinct — fifteen from each of seventeen, for three-year terms — joined by members who sit by office (the Select Board, the Moderator, the Town Clerk, and any state legislator who lives in town). It passes the budget and every bylaw. The annual meeting comes in late spring and a special one usually in the fall; anyone may watch, only members vote.
read the source Brookline — Town Meeting
on the record Brookline: 564 times in 18 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
Town Administrator
Brookline
The town’s chief appointed manager, hired by the Select Board to run its departments and its daily business.
read the source Brookline — Select Board
on the record Brookline: 78 times in 13 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
Advisory Committee
Brookline
Town Meeting’s finance committee: twenty to thirty residents, appointed by the Moderator, who hold hearings on every warrant article — the budget included — and recommend how Town Meeting should vote. It alone may approve a transfer from the reserve fund.
read the source Brookline — Advisory Committee
on the record Brookline: 147 times in 16 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
City Council
Boston
Boston’s legislature: thirteen councilors — nine elected by district, four at large — elected every two years. It passes the city’s ordinances, approves its budget each year and holds hearings on what comes before it.
read the source Boston — City Council
on the record Boston: 461 times in 36 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
Planning Board
Massachusetts
The board that plans a community’s growth — its master plan, subdivisions, the design of large projects — and holds a hearing and reports on every proposed change to the zoning.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A § 5 (zoning changes) · c. 41 § 81D (the master plan)
on the record Brookline: 57 times in 10 meetings, first on March 10, 2026
Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA)
Massachusetts
The board that hears requests for variances, special permits and Chapter 40B comprehensive permits, and appeals of a building official’s zoning decisions — each at a public hearing. Boston’s Zoning Board of Appeal does the same work under the city’s own zoning law.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A § 14 · c. 40B § 21 (comprehensive permits) · Boston — the Enabling Act (St. 1956, c. 665)
on the record Boston: 89 times in 12 meetings, first on September 16, 2026 · Brookline: 25 times in 6 meetings, first on April 14, 2026
BPDA
Boston
The Boston Planning & Development Agency, which planned the city’s growth and reviewed its development. Its staff and most of its work have moved into the City of Boston’s Planning Department; the agency’s board of directors still meets — the record carries its meetings — to vote on projects, land and contracts.
read the source Boston — Planning Department
on the record Boston: 83 times in 8 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
How a meeting runs
warrant, warrant article
BrooklineMassachusetts
The warrant is the official list of what a Town Meeting may act on, issued by the Select Board; each item on it is a warrant article — the budget, a bylaw, a zoning change, a resolution. An article reaches the warrant from the Select Board or by a petition of the town’s voters, and Town Meeting may act only on what its warrant says.
read the source Brookline — Town Meeting · M.G.L. c. 39 § 10
on the record Brookline: 390 times in 17 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 3 times in 3 meetings, first on September 16, 2026
favorable action, no action
Brookline
How a board recommends a warrant article to Town Meeting: favorable action — adopt it, usually in the words of a motion it offers — or no action. The recommendation is advice; Town Meeting decides by its own vote.
read the source Brookline — Town Meeting Handbook
on the record Brookline: 72 times in 9 meetings, first on March 10, 2026
reconsideration
Massachusetts
A motion to take up again a question already voted, so the body can decide it anew — allowed only as the body’s own rules of procedure permit.
read the source Brookline — Town Meeting Handbook
on the record Boston: 27 times in 6 meetings, first on July 8, 2026 · Brookline: 27 times in 8 meetings, first on March 31, 2026
quorum
Massachusetts
The number of members who must be present before a body may act — under the Open Meeting Law, a simple majority, unless a law, a charter or a bylaw sets a different number.
read the source M.G.L. c. 30A § 18
on the record Boston: 19 times in 6 meetings, first on September 16, 2026 · Brookline: 3 times in 2 meetings, first on May 12, 2026
roll call
Massachusetts
A vote taken by calling each member by name, so that how each one voted — yes, no, abstain — is on the record. The record reads the roll calls it can hear on the tape; the official minutes are the last word.
read the source the record — the votes · the Attorney General — the Open Meeting Law
on the record Boston: 135 times in 9 meetings, first on July 8, 2026 · Brookline: 3 times in 1 meeting, first on October 14, 2026
public hearing
Massachusetts
A session a board must advertise in advance and open to anyone before it decides certain things — a zoning change, a permit, a license — so that the people affected can be heard.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A § 11
on the record Brookline: 181 times in 14 meetings, first on January 13, 2026 · Boston: 18 times in 9 meetings, first on September 16, 2026
public comment
Massachusetts
Time a board sets aside for anyone to speak, on the board’s own rules — usually a few minutes each. The Open Meeting Law requires a meeting to be open to the public; whether and when the public speaks is the chair’s to decide.
read the source Brookline — Select Board · the Attorney General — the Open Meeting Law
on the record Brookline: 147 times in 17 meetings, first on January 13, 2026 · Boston: 28 times in 11 meetings, first on September 16, 2026
executive session
Massachusetts
The part of a meeting a public body may hold in private — only for a reason the Open Meeting Law lists, among them a person’s reputation, negotiations with staff outside a union, and — when an open meeting may hurt the body’s position and the chair says so — strategy for collective bargaining or litigation and the purchase or lease of real estate — entered by a roll-call vote in open session, with the reason stated.
read the source M.G.L. c. 30A § 21
on the record Brookline: 68 times in 15 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
Open Meeting Law
Massachusetts
The state law that requires a public body to meet in the open, to post each meeting forty-eight hours ahead (weekends and holidays aside), and to keep minutes — with a short list of reasons it may meet in executive session.
read the source the Attorney General — the Open Meeting Law · M.G.L. c. 30A §§ 18–25
on the record Boston: 17 times in 13 meetings, first on July 8, 2026 · Brookline: 7 times in 4 meetings, first on March 31, 2026
docket
Boston
A numbered item before the Boston City Council — an ordinance, an order for a hearing, a resolution, an appointment, a grant to accept. The council refers it to a committee, passes it, or places it on file.
read the source Boston — City Council
on the record Boston: 1120 times in 32 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
The money
fiscal year (FY)
Massachusetts
The budget year. Massachusetts cities and towns run theirs from July 1 to June 30 and name it for the year it ends: FY2027 began on July 1, 2026.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 229 times in 17 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 141 times in 20 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
appropriation
Massachusetts
A vote of Town Meeting or a city council that authorizes spending a set amount for a set purpose. Most public money is spent only as an appropriation allows; grants, gifts and revolving funds have rules of their own.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · c. 44 § 53A (grants and gifts)
on the record Boston: 75 times in 10 meetings, first on September 16, 2026 · Brookline: 55 times in 7 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
Proposition 2½
Massachusetts
The 1980 state law that caps a community’s property taxes. The most it may levy in a year — its levy limit — may grow by 2.5 percent plus new growth, and the limit may never pass 2.5 percent of the full value of all its taxable property, the levy ceiling. Voters can raise the limit with an override, or tax beyond it — even beyond the ceiling — for one project’s debt with a debt exclusion.
read the source M.G.L. c. 59 § 21C · the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 20 times in 4 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 7 times in 1 meeting, first on July 8, 2026
levy, levy limit
Massachusetts
The levy is what a community raises in property taxes in a year. The levy limit is the most Proposition 2½ lets it raise: last year’s limit, plus 2.5 percent, plus new growth, plus any override its voters approved. A debt exclusion’s payments ride on top of the limit, only while the debt lasts — so the law reads; the state’s glossary counts exclusions into the limit.
read the source M.G.L. c. 59 § 21C · the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 72 times in 6 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 8 times in 4 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
new growth
Massachusetts
Tax from property new to the tax rolls — new buildings, additions, renovations — which a community may add to its levy limit on top of the 2.5 percent. A rise in market values alone is not new growth.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 26 times in 3 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 4 times in 2 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
override
MassachusettsBrookline
A ballot question that asks voters to raise the levy limit permanently, by a stated amount for a stated purpose. It needs a majority at the polls, and it can never lift the levy past the levy ceiling. The money it raises is then appropriated like any other.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · Brookline — the FY 2027–2029 override guide
on the record Brookline: 333 times in 14 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 1 time in 1 meeting, first on September 22, 2026
debt exclusion
Massachusetts
A ballot question that lets a community tax above its levy limit only to pay the debt on one project — a school, a fire station — and only until that debt is paid. Unlike an override, it ends.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 18 times in 4 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
free cash
Massachusetts
Unrestricted money left over from the last fiscal year — revenue above its estimate, budget lines not spent — once the state certifies the amount. It is often spent on one-time costs or put into reserves, by a vote of Town Meeting or the council.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 104 times in 8 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
stabilization fund
Massachusetts
A community’s savings for the future — an emergency, a lean year, a large capital cost. Creating a fund or changing its purpose takes a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting or the council. Spending from the general stabilization fund takes two thirds; a fund set up for one named purpose can be spent by a simple majority. Putting money in takes a simple majority.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · M.G.L. c. 40 § 5B
on the record Brookline: 29 times in 6 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
reserve fund
MassachusettsBrookline
A small sum set aside in the budget — no more than 5 percent of the last year’s levy — for costs no one could foresee. In a town the finance committee approves each transfer from it; in Brookline, the Advisory Committee.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · M.G.L. c. 40 § 6
on the record Brookline: 24 times in 4 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
capital improvement plan (CIP)
MassachusettsBrookline
The long-range list of what a community means to build, repair or buy — roofs, roads, schools, fire trucks — year by year, with how each will be paid for. Brookline’s runs six years; its first year is the capital budget Town Meeting votes.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · Brookline — Select Board
on the record Brookline: 136 times in 16 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 1 time in 1 meeting, first on October 20, 2026
state aid, Chapter 70
Massachusetts
The money the Commonwealth sends each city and town every year. Chapter 70 is the largest part — the state’s formula aid for public schools. Each community learns its amounts from the cherry sheet, named for the cherry-colored paper it was once printed on.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · M.G.L. c. 70
on the record Brookline: 19 times in 6 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 3 times in 2 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes)
MassachusettsBoston
Usually a voluntary payment an institution exempt from property tax — a university, a hospital — makes to the city or town it sits in, in place of the taxes it does not owe; some are contracts instead. Boston asks its large nonprofits for one every year.
read the source Boston — the PILOT program · the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary
on the record Brookline: 2 times in 1 meeting, first on March 24, 2026 · Boston: 1 time in 1 meeting, first on July 8, 2026
Community Preservation Act (CPA)
Massachusetts
A state law a community may adopt by ballot: a surcharge of up to 3 percent on property taxes, matched in part by the state, spent only on open space, historic preservation, affordable housing and outdoor recreation, on the advice of a local Community Preservation Committee.
read the source the Community Preservation Coalition · M.G.L. c. 44B
on the record Boston: 31 times in 5 meetings, first on July 8, 2026 · Brookline: 11 times in 4 meetings, first on March 10, 2026
collective bargaining
Massachusetts
Negotiation between a public employer and the union that represents its workers — over wages, hours and working conditions — under the state’s public-employee bargaining law. A board plans its side in executive session.
read the source the state’s Municipal Finance Glossary · M.G.L. c. 150E
on the record Boston: 116 times in 9 meetings, first on September 16, 2026 · Brookline: 43 times in 12 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
What gets built, and where
bylaw
Massachusetts
A town’s own local law — its general bylaws and its zoning bylaw — adopted or changed by Town Meeting. A city’s local laws are ordinances, passed by its council.
read the source Brookline — Town Meeting
on the record Brookline: 289 times in 14 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 2 times in 2 meetings, first on October 7, 2026
zoning, zoning bylaw
Massachusetts
The rules for what may be built where — uses, heights, setbacks, parking. A town sets them in its zoning bylaw under the state’s Zoning Act; most changes take a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting (in another city, of its council), some housing changes a simple majority. Boston is the exception: its zoning code rests on a state law of its own, and its Zoning Commission, with the mayor — not the City Council — adopts changes.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A (the Zoning Act) · Boston — the Enabling Act (St. 1956, c. 665)
on the record Boston: 476 times in 21 meetings, first on July 8, 2026 · Brookline: 308 times in 16 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
overlay district
Massachusetts
A zone drawn over the existing zoning that adds rules or allows more — denser housing near transit, a historic area’s protections — without erasing the zoning beneath it.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A
on the record Brookline: 23 times in 7 meetings, first on March 10, 2026 · Boston: 4 times in 1 meeting, first on October 15, 2026
special permit
Massachusetts
Permission for a use or a building the zoning allows only case by case, granted by a named board after a public hearing — often with conditions.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A § 9
on the record Brookline: 31 times in 6 meetings, first on March 10, 2026 · Boston: 1 time in 1 meeting, first on October 19, 2026
variance
Massachusetts
Permission to depart from the zoning’s own terms — a setback, a height — granted only where the soil, shape or topography of that particular lot, and not the district around it, would make the rule a substantial hardship, and only if the relief does no substantial harm to the public good or to the bylaw’s purpose. A use the district forbids needs a bylaw that allows use variances at all.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40A § 10
on the record Boston: 47 times in 5 meetings, first on September 16, 2026 · Brookline: 10 times in 5 meetings, first on March 31, 2026
Chapter 40B
Massachusetts
The state law that lets a developer who sets aside a share of new homes as affordable ask the Zoning Board of Appeals for one comprehensive permit in place of the separate local approvals. If the board refuses, or sets conditions that make the homes uneconomic, the developer can appeal to the state’s Housing Appeals Committee, which can overrule it — unless the community has met the law’s safe harbors, chiefly 10 percent of its housing counted as affordable.
read the source M.G.L. c. 40B §§ 20–23 · § 22 (the appeal)
on the record Brookline: 20 times in 5 meetings, first on March 10, 2026
MBTA Communities (Section 3A)
Massachusetts
The 2021 state law that requires 177 cities and towns in and around the MBTA’s service area — Boston, served by the MBTA but outside the Zoning Act, is not one of them — to have at least one zoning district of reasonable size (at least 15 homes an acre, and where a town has a station, in part within half a mile of it) where multifamily housing open to families is allowed as of right, without a special permit.
read the source Massachusetts — the MBTA Communities law · M.G.L. c. 40A § 3A
on the record Brookline: 3 times in 2 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
affordable housing trust
MassachusettsBrookline
A fund a city or town sets up to create and keep homes that people of modest means can afford, governed by its own board of trustees.
read the source M.G.L. c. 44 § 55C
on the record Brookline: 106 times in 8 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 1 time in 1 meeting, first on October 20, 2026
Article 80
Boston
The part of Boston’s zoning code that sets how a larger development is reviewed — small projects over 20,000 square feet or 15 homes, large ones over 50,000, planned development areas and institutions’ master plans: its public meetings, the city’s review of its design and impacts, and the vote that approves it.
read the source Boston — what is Article 80
on the record Boston: 55 times in 10 meetings, first on September 17, 2026
Vision Zero
BostonBrookline
A traffic-safety policy with one goal — no one killed or seriously hurt on the streets (Boston’s target is 2030) — pursued through lower speeds, safer street design and close study of where crashes happen.
read the source Boston — Vision Zero
on the record Brookline: 121 times in 12 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 8 times in 3 meetings, first on September 30, 2026
The schools
School Committee
Massachusetts
The board that governs a district’s public schools: it sets their policy, adopts the school budget and hires the superintendent.
read the source M.G.L. c. 71 § 37
on the record Boston: 153 times in 12 meetings, first on July 8, 2026 · Brookline: 146 times in 14 meetings, first on December 9, 2025
superintendent
Massachusetts
The school district’s chief executive, appointed by the School Committee to run the schools day to day.
read the source M.G.L. c. 71 § 59
on the record Brookline: 116 times in 11 meetings, first on December 9, 2025 · Boston: 108 times in 13 meetings, first on July 8, 2026
METCO
MassachusettsBostonBrookline
The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity: since 1966, a voluntary program through which Boston students attend the public schools of suburban towns, Brookline among them.
read the source METCO, Inc.
on the record Brookline: 118 times in 4 meetings, first on June 18, 2026
DESE
Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — the state agency that oversees public schools: their standards, the MCAS tests, the state’s school aid.
read the source the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
on the record Brookline: 18 times in 1 meeting, first on June 18, 2026