Talk:Winthrop, Massachusetts

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[edit] Is Winthrop a town or city?

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 For the sake of a broader audience, part or all of the discussion below has been transferred from the User namespace at User talk:markles to this space below. Please continue the discussion here.

Winthrop operates under a city form of government but calls itself a town.

Massachusetts town government has a town meeting and Board of Selectman. Town elections are in the spring, and are held annually.

"Towns" that operate under a "town council," without selectmen and town meeting, are operating under a city plan of government. Cities also hold elections on the traditional election day in odd numbered years. This describes the government in Winthrop.

The 2005 vote to restructure the government in Winthrop abolished Town Meeting, the Board of Selectmen, and the annual spring election.

See http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-39-toc.htm for the legal rules for towns and cities.

See http://www.town.winthrop.ma.us/Pages/WinthropMA_Bcomm/councilors for the councilors in Winthrop, and http://www.town.winthrop.ma.us/Pages/WinthropMA_BBoard/010FD0E9-000F8513 for the election cycle. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Schlichtman (talk • contribs) 03:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

  • I don't that you're right and I don't doubt your research. Nevertheless, under WP:OR, you need to show a source stating that "Winthrop is a city." It's not enough to say that MGL defines a city as such-and-such. That's good research, but it's original research and that's forbidden in Wikipedia. I've got sources that say explicitly that Winthrop is a town. It's not my research, it's a direct statement of the Secretary of the Commonwealth: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cisctlist/ctlistalph.htm. If it's out-of-date, then find a direct statement to the contrary.—Markles 10:58, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
  • The secretary of the Commonwealth is one source for a list of municipalities like this. This came up at New England town, and there are citations there on the topic showing it's not original research. There are a number of municipalities called "town of" that don't have town meetings, and it has been decided in Massachusetts court that these entities have city laws apply to them. I don't have the case name / cite unfortunately yet.
    See: