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Mass. House adopts ceremonial resolutions, advances a batch of local bills and adopts amendment to retirement bill
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Summary
In a routine floor session the Massachusetts House adopted ceremonial resolutions, advanced several local and municipal bills to later readings or enactment, adopted an amendment to a retirement bill from the Senate, scheduled the next informal session for Monday at 11:00 a.m., and adjourned.
The Massachusetts House convened and conducted routine procedural business including committee reports, the adoption of ceremonial resolutions, and the advancement of several local bills to further readings or enactment.
The session opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. The committee on rules reported resolutions honoring William B. O'Leary on his 100th birthday, congratulating Eagle Scout Ethan Ho, and recognizing the 150th anniversary of St. Paul's Church in Palmer; the house adopted those resolutions by voice vote after the chair put the question.
The committee on steering, policy and scheduling placed a set of local bills on the calendar, including measures concerning excise on transfers of parking spaces in Salem, expanded senior property tax abatements in Auburn, amendments to Sudbury's means-tested senior exemption, and land acquisition/disposition in Falmouth. On second reading the house ordered those bills to a third reading by voice vote.
A set of engrossed bills presented as "rightly and truly prepared for final passage" were taken up and passed to be enacted by voice vote. Among those were measures exempting specific individuals from age limits for appointment to firefighter and police positions in Haverhill and a measure to update Chicopee's city charter language for gender neutrality.
House Bill 4476, authorizing Kenneth Navarro to take the civil service examination for firefighter in Haverhill notwithstanding the maximum age requirement, and House Bill 4477, authorizing William Rob Cargill similarly, were released by the committee in the third reading and passed to be engrossed. House Bill 4738, regarding special meetings of the Holyoke city council, was also passed to be engrossed.
Senate Bill 1859, providing for the retirement of Walter L. Gerton, a former member of the Attleboro fire department, was released for third reading. Mr. Walsh of Peabody offered an amendment to replace the bill's acting clause with the text read from the referenced House document; the chair announced the amendment was adopted and the bill passed to be engrossed as amended.
The house adopted an order to adjourn to meet Monday next at 11:00 a.m., and, on motion by Mr. Smola of Warren, the chair put the question and the house adjourned to that time and date in an informal session.
The session was largely procedural and conducted by voice votes; no recorded roll-call tallies were provided in the transcript.
