SENATE, No. 15

A message from His Excellency the Governor returning (pursuant to Article LVI of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, as amended by Article XC, Section 3 of the Amendments to the Constitution) the engrossed Bill relative to residency requirements for regular fire and police officers in the town of Boxborough (Senate, No. 9), with recommendation of amendment (having been received in the Office of the Clerk of the Senate on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at twenty-seven minutes before five o'clock P.M.).

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

                                                          February 9, 2007

To the Honorable Senate and  House of Representatives:

          Pursuant to Article LVI, as amended by Article XC, Section 3 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am returning to you for amendment Senate Bill No. 9, “An Act Relative to Residency Requirements For Regular Fire and Police Officers In The Town Of Boxborough.”

          This bill is intended to exempt the town of Boxborough’s full-time police and firefighters from the requirement that they live within fifteen miles from the limits of the town and establish a forty mile residency limit instead.  As enacted the legislation incorrectly sites M.G.L. c. 41, § 99 instead of M.G.L. c. 41, § 99A as the relevant statute establishing a mileage residency requirement. 

I, therefore, recommend that Senate Bill No. 9 be amended by striking out in the first sentence of Section 1 the number “99” and inserting in place thereof the following number and letter:- 99A.

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

Deval Patrick,
Governor