WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF TOWN MEETING GOVERNMENT?
Town Meeting-Selectmen This is the most common form. Currently 209 municipalities in Maine have this form of government, which relies on a board of selectmen to function as the executive arm administering, enforcing, and carrying out the decisions made by the town meeting. Some towns find that a part-time board of selectmen is not enough, and that a full-time manager is too much, so they hire an administrative assistant to the selectmen. Currently 52 towns have administrative assistants. Town Meeting-Selectmen-Manager This is the second most common form of local government in Maine. As municipalities grow in size, and as state and federal regulations increase in number and complexity, many municipalities (currently 135) have hired a manager to administer the town s government. Under this form, the board of selectmen continue to serve as the town s executive body; the difference is that now they have an administrator to oversee the daily operations of the municipality so they can attend
