The Great Barrington Select Board approved updated policies and procedures Monday that revise the town’s rules for public comment and incorporate several administrative clarifications.

Staff presented a revised policy document that will be posted on the town website and incorporated into the town code. The board and staff said the document replaces an older manual and includes updates for social-media guidance and meeting procedures. Town counsel will perform a final review before publication.

A central change discussed at length was the wording for the public-comment portion of meetings. The draft originally used the term “citizens” for eligibility to speak; board members and staff discussed replacing that phrase with a definition intended to cover “town residents, property owners or business owners.” Town staff advised the board there is no existing town bylaw that explicitly restricts citizens’‑speak to residents, so the revised text clarifies who is eligible for the allotted comment time.

Board members also asked staff to reword a provision that had been interpreted as limiting people to speaking only once across an entire meeting; the board agreed to rephrase the language to make clear that procedural limits apply to citizen-speak but that chairs retain discretion for exceptions on agenda items.

Why it matters: The change narrows ambiguity about who can use the town’s citizen-speak time and gives the chair and staff a clearer policy to implement. Several board members said the updates were overdue; one member thanked staff for work on capitalization and style consistency across the document.

Outcome: The board voted to approve the updated policies and procedures, subject to final review by counsel; staff will post the revised policy on the new town website after the legal review.