Board of Assessors approves Oct. 17 minutes, denies motor-vehicle excise abatement and moves to executive session

The Board of Assessors met Thursday, Dec. 11 and approved the minutes from the Oct. 17 meeting before turning to other business.

Speaker 2 moved "to accept the minutes as written for 10/17/2025," and Speaker 1 seconded. After Speaker 2 called for the vote, two members said "Aye," and Speaker 2 confirmed the board would proceed to general business ("So now we can get on to natural business.").

On a separate item, Speaker 2 introduced "a motor vehicle, excise abatement denial," telling the board the case was being denied because "there wouldn't be anything coming back" given the timing of the vehicle's registration and cancellation. Speaker 2 said staff had already emailed the applicant and that the board would send the formal denial once the board had met. Speaker 1 offered to sign the denial form.

Speaker 1 said the board would go into "executive session under general law chapter 38 section 21 8 7 to comply with their act...not to return to open session upon adjournment." Speaker 2 moved to enter the executive session and not return to open session; Speaker 1 seconded. The meeting then proceeded to close open proceedings so the board could enter executive session.

The transcript records the motions, the brief discussion of the excise abatement denial and the decision to enter executive session, but does not include a roll-call vote for the executive-session motion or a formal recorded vote on the abatement denial; Speaker 2 stated staff will deliver the denial form and Speaker 1 agreed to sign it. The statute citation quoted in the meeting is recorded verbatim in the transcript but is ambiguous as spoken: the record shows "general law chapter 38 section 21 8 7."