Marshfield Town Meeting Votes 483-30 to Pursue Five-Member Select Board

MARSHFIELD — April 27, 2026 — Marshfield Town Meeting defers budget and override vote to June 15, passes Select Board expansion 483-30. In a combined special and annual Town Meeting drawing roughly 500 voters on April 27, Moderator Jim Fitzgerald announced all financial articles — including a potential Proposition 2 1/2 override — would be postponed to a second session on June 15 due to budget preparation delays. The assembly cleared a $717,428.90 appropriation for prior-year unpaid bills, the bulk of which stems from Massachusetts unemployment liability assessments that went unpaid for more than six years; Interim Town Administrator Peter Morin said he found no unemployment line item in the budget when he arrived and added one in June 2025. On a standing vote of 483 to 30, the meeting backed a citizen's petition by Brian Fleming of Genecia's Path to pursue a home rule special act expanding the Select Board from three members to five, with the expansion now requiring the current two-member Select Board to vote to forward the petition to the state legislature — a one-to-one split would kill the effort. The meeting also approved approximately $2.5 million in Community Preservation Committee project spending across 10 items, including $1,175,000 for Phase 2 lighting at Marshfield High School ball fields and $250,000 toward a South Shore Habitat for Humanity affordable home at the Route 3A site.