They oversee road maintenance, collect taxes, oversee the police and fire departments, run the transfer station, appoint the members of 19 town boards, and approve measures to be voted upon each year at Annual Town Meeting. But they don’t create the town budget, can’t change town zoning, and are at the mercy of state laws when it comes to unwanted construction of low-cost housing and the disposition of Devens.

The Board of Selectmen (BOS) is the most powerful board among the more than 30 bodies responsible for governing the town, however, as the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) wryly observes in its Handbook for Massachusetts Selectmen, the members “have less authority in their towns than the governor does in the commonwealth, or the president does in the federal government, to say nothing of executives in the business world.”

“I think sometimes that we all kind of forget,” says former BOS chairman Rick Maiore, that the [BOS] is the executive branch of our town government, the legislative branch being, of course, the Annual Town Meeting (ATM).” But because Harvard’s five selectmen vote to approve or reject a host of items, from liquor licenses and new dump procedures to budgets and proposed bylaws, “there’s somehow the perception that they’re the legislative body,” says Maiore.

What’s reasonable to expect of the BOS as it grapples with a host of issues—the budget, the disposition of Devens, and 40B among them—headed their way in 2010? In this two-part series, the Press looks first at the powers of the BOS. Next week we answer: What does an effective BOS look like, and given that all decisions require at least three of its members to agree, how can a single member help it meet the goals the town has set?

The form of town government that most Massachusetts municipalities use to govern themselves dates back to the Mayflower Compact of 1620 and the decision by the Pilgrims to decide questions of importance to the entire community by a majority vote of its citizens. As towns spread quickly across the Massachusetts Bay Colony, an annual meeting became the means by which they decided how to govern and tax themselves. Many soon adopted the practice of naming a group of prominent citizens to carry out the wishes of town meeting voters. These committees became known as “townsmen” or “selectmen.”

Dorchester was the first town to elect a board of selectmen, in 1633, and formalize its role as the executive branch of town government. Today, of the 351 towns and cities in Massachusetts, a lopsided majority—298—continue to use the combination of an annual town meeting and a board of selectmen to govern themselves. Like Harvard, approximately half have a five-member board, having found that having three selectmen is no longer adequate to deal with the increase in responsibilities.

The authority of Massachusetts boards of selectmen is scattered among innumerable statutes, town bylaws, home-rule charters, and special laws enacted by their towns. Key responsibilities include:

• Preparing the Annual Town Meeting warrant—that is, the items voters will be asked to approve
• Making appointments to most unelected town boards and committees
• Employing a town counsel
• Employing the professional town staff authorized by ATM
• Paying bills
• Issuing licenses

Over time most boards of selectmen have delegated the day-to-day administration of town operations—such as police and fire protection, road maintenance, tax collection, and issuance of building permits—to departments headed by professional managers. According to the MMA, by last year, 147 towns, including Harvard, had hired a full-time professional town administrator to provide continuity and centralized management of town hall.

“The town administrator is like the glue that holds the whole thing together,” said Chairman Ron Ricci in a recent phone conversation.

However, selectmen are not the only elected officials in a town. The members of the School Committee, whose spending accounts for 70 percent of the annual town budget in Harvard, and the Planning Board members are elected and are empowered by state laws that give them the authority to act independently of a board of selectmen. The town moderator is also an elected official. He presides over the ATM and appoints the members of the finance committee, who not only advise the Harvard BOS but also draw up the annual budget on which the town votes.

Despite this dispersion of authority, the selectmen hold one card that that trumps all others: the BOS must approve every question placed before the town. “There is a very narrow window through which all other boards have to pass, and that window is called the ‘warrant,’ the articles, including the budget, on which the town votes each year,” says Selectman Tim Clark. By state law, unless the BOS approves, no article, not even the budget, can be added to a town meeting warrant. This power ultimately allows a board of selectmen to force consensus among competing interests. But with this comes the responsibility to set a vision to help town boards and officials—and voters—find the common ground that leads to consensus.

The MMA states, “[The selectmen] can and should be the group that sets policy and strategic direction,” coordinates work of other boards, hears appeals, and resolves problems at lower levels. Selectmen “too often confuse this broad policy role with meddling in the details of town government. There is more than enough to do without getting bogged down in matters that are better delegated to someone else. The board’s time will be better spent if members concentrate on making the whole of town government work.”

“We can’t just unilaterally say we’re going to do this, this, or this,” says Ricci. “But for something that needs doing or is important or the community [wants], I think that we’re the ones [the BOS] who should take the lead on it, come up with a good way of doing it—which involves listening to other people—and then, I think, we’re the ones that build a consensus and get it done.”