When Town Meeting time rolls around, Needham Town Moderator Michael Fee trusts Town Meeting Time, a publication of the Massachusetts Moderators Association, for meeting rules and processes. In Fee’s case, however, the book is rarely needed or consulted: He’s been moderating Needham’s meetings for 30 years.
Phillip Murray will be attending his 12th Town Meeting this spring from precinct E. He said that while national political discourse has gotten more heated, Needham’s legislative chamber seems to have become more civil and efficient. He attributes some of that to Michael Fee who will be moderating Town Meeting for the 30th time in 2026. “He runs the meeting with the order and civility you’d like to see,” Murray said. “And the nice thing about Michael is that he can always inject a little bit of humor when needed.”
Fee told the Observer, “The meeting is kind of an amazing living organism. It moves itself along. It knows when it’s heard enough.”
Wendy Blom, who will attend her fifth Town Meeting from precinct B, disagrees with that assessment. She said that Fee “plays a huge part in making the sessions move along.”
She said that at first, she feared that the evenings would drag and stall, but “meetings are run very smoothly according to rules that we all understand, and people are allowed to laugh.” She said that this positive spirit enables members to listen to a greater variety of points of view.
Fee admits that the length and complexity of warrant items can be a challenge to get through. He said that each town meeting adopts its own rules at the outset and that Needham has been adopting a rule that limits speakers to five minutes, but he says it wasn’t always that way.
When there were no time limits, Fee said, the meetings spanned two or three weeks. “We’ve pared it down to a point where we want comments to be concise,” he said. “But we don’t want it to be so concise that it’s not meaningful.”
Nordo Nissi will be attending his second Town Meeting from precinct E. He said, “Fee provided information in advance that was super helpful about how the meeting would function.” In particular, Nissi said that he appreciated knowing the rules about how to close debate.
The meeting is run by the parliamentary rules outlined in Town Meeting Time. The association lobbies at the state level for towns and helps moderators learn their obscure craft. Fee has a deep association with the Massachusetts Moderators Association and mentors moderators in other Bay State towns.
Town Meeting Time says, “The foundation of every town meeting is the warrant.” Needham’s 2026 Town Warrant clocks in at 93 pages and 43 warrant items, some simple and some quite complex. Parliamentary rules determine how the items are discussed and when and how the discussion ends for each item.
“I have no power to close debate,” Fee said. “I can only move debate in accordance with our rules. I can enforce our time limits and maybe try to remind people to avoid redundancy.”
Blom said that, in general, her fellow Town Meetings members avoid redundancy. She has never spoken in the meeting because, “someone else always expresses my opinion.”
Murray said that he’s noticed times when a vote takes and people are still queued behind the microphones waiting to speak. “I think he does as fair a job as anyone trying to call on people who need to talk, but it’s his choice. If you don’t get called on, you don’t get called on.”
“It takes a two-thirds vote to close debate on a warrant item,” Fee said. “It’s a serious thing because we’re cutting off speech.”
Town Meeting Time says that it’s the moderator’s job to keep speakers within the “four corners” of an issue, an expression that veteran members have taken to heart. Murray explained, “If you’re talking about a budgetary item regarding a special allocation to public works, he doesn’t want to hear about your thoughts on the Pollard Middle School.”
“I think there’s a lot of care and attentiveness that people bring to the time meeting in Needham,” Nissi said.
Fee said that his preparation for the meeting begins long before the opening gavel sounds. He spends a lot of time talking to the stakeholders of all the warrant items and consults with the town counsel about the wide range of legal issues called into play by the long list of diverse issues.
Controlling the physical space in Powers Hall where the meeting takes place is also part of Fee’s fiefdom. “I’m also responsible for everything that happens inside that hall,” Fee said.
He needs the voting members to be clearly separated from observers so that the tellers can calculate votes accurately. He needs to know where the town counsel, the town manager, Finance Committee and the Select Board are seated so he can consult with them quickly. “Then we have a table that turns over, depending upon what’s going on,” he said. “For example, if there’s a zoning matter, the Planning Board will come down and sit there.”
The controlled civility that has characterized Needham Town meeting is not something that Fee takes for granted. He hopes that his preparations assure that it will continue but he remains vigilant.
“I’m not trying to be anachronistic or unrealistic. I just want us to be nice to one another and accomplish our task,” Fee said. “ I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
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