Select Board approves four sets of minutes, dispatches consent calendar in 20-minute session

WAYLAND -- November 29, 2023, Wayland Select Board clears minutes backlog in 20-minute session marked by grammar debate. The board voted 4-0 on Wednesday to approve minutes from its Nov. 1, Nov. 6, Nov. 13 and Nov. 20 meetings as amended, and 4-0 again to adopt the consent calendar before adjourning at 3:51 p.m. Chair William Whitney opened the discussion by asking colleagues to weigh in on the board's "punctuation policy" regarding commas before conjunctions, citing "a split opinion in the Whitney household." Member Carol B. Martin said she did not have "a dog in this fight" but supported clarity for readers. Town Manager Michael McCall urged the board to embrace the Oxford comma at its next minutes review; Whitney replied, "That is a hill I will die on." Substantive edits included correcting a Nov. 6 vote from 5-0 to 4-0-1 and clarifying a finance official's comment that no additional budget contingency was needed "at this time."