Middletown board approves Oct. 2 minutes after member challenged over attendance

The Board of Estimate and Apportionment in Middletown voted to approve the minutes of its Oct. 2, 2025, meeting after a brief procedural dispute about whether a member who had not attended that meeting could vote to approve the minutes.

During the approval motion, the presiding officer interrupted and said, “Mister Massey, you were not present at the October 2 meeting. So how can you make a motion to approve the minutes?” Mr. Massey replied, “I said I read the minutes and I approve them.” The board then proceeded with the vote; the presiding officer called for voice approval and members said “Aye.”

The exchange occurred at the start of the meeting as the board moved through routine business. The presiding officer framed the concern as a question of procedure rather than a formal challenge to the vote; no formal motion to reconsider the minutes was recorded. The transcript does not record a roll-call tally or identify which members voted.

Because the record does not include a roll-call or named vote for the minutes approval, it is not possible to say which individual members cast particular votes beyond the recorded verbal “Aye” responses called by the presiding officer. The board continued to other agenda items after approving the minutes.

The procedural question — whether a member who did not attend an earlier meeting may move or vote to approve that meeting’s minutes — was raised verbally and left without a formal ruling on the record.

The minutes approval and the brief dispute were the first substantive items acted on during the board’s meeting; no follow-up action on the procedural question was recorded.