House suspends Joint Rule 12 to refer MWRA petition on Sharon parcel to environment committee

The House suspended Joint Rule 12 and referred a petition seeking to authorize the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to provide source services to a parcel of land in the town of Sharon to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, the chamber recorded during its session.

The Committee on Rules recommended that Joint Rule 12 be suspended on a petition filed by Edward R. Phillips and Michael F. Rush so the matter could be considered by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Pottola, a House member from Brookline, moved suspension of the rules; the motion was adopted by voice vote, with the clerk announcing "the ayes have it." The transcript does not record a roll-call tally or additional debate on the petition.

The petition's text and the exact parcel details were not specified in the session record. The action recorded was procedural: suspending Joint Rule 12 to allow the petition to proceed to committee consideration rather than a final legislative decision on the substance of the measure.

The House also adopted an order setting the next formal session. An order that when the House adjourned it would meet Wednesday next at 11 a.m. was read by the clerk and adopted by voice vote. Ms. Kane of Shrewsbury moved that the House stand adjourned; the motion carried on a voice vote and the House stood adjourned.

Court officers were recorded as notifying Democratic members of a caucus at 1 p.m.; the transcript also contains a notice of a gathering at noon in Room 1A and a separate reference to "phone calls at 1." Those notifications were recorded as part of routine chamber business; no further scheduling or committee hearing dates for the petition were provided in the transcript.