Taunton council adopts several rule changes, sets 3‑minute public comment limit and reworks subcommittee structure

Taunton Municipal Council members moved forward with a package of rule changes and procedural tweaks on Oct. 7, voting to reorganize committee structures and to limit public comment time.

The council approved reductions in several subcommittee sizes and rewrote several committee descriptions, including a new Public Property and Information Technology subcommittee and a new Transportation subcommittee. “The committee shall also concern itself with telecommunications, new technologies, information technology,” the revised public property language reads, as presented to the council.

Why it matters: The changes alter how the council conducts internal oversight and how members are assigned to committee work, and they were billed by proponents as measures to increase transparency and…