---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act validating the actions taken at a certain town meeting in the town of Berlin"
description: "By Mr. Naughton of Clinton, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3961) of Harold P. Naughton, Jr. (by vote of the town) relative to validating the actions taken at a certain town meeting in the town of Berlin. Municipalities and Regional Government. [Local Approval Received.]"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "190th"
identifier: "H 3961"
citation: "Massachusetts H 3961 (190th)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Harold P. Naughton, Jr."]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2017-10-17"
last_action: "2017-12-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b66f5667-11fb-43f4-9002-9ed0f6759735"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/H3961"
source_hash: "d3fdea43206f8e307f8816658ed04e3ce2d05686bdcef5d6ee7af81d17677336"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ma"]
---

# Massachusetts H 3961 (190th) — An Act validating the actions taken at a certain town meeting in the town of Berlin

By Mr. Naughton of Clinton, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3961) of Harold P. Naughton, Jr. (by vote of the town) relative to validating the actions taken at a certain town meeting in the town of Berlin. Municipalities and Regional Government. [Local Approval Received.]

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/H3961.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Harold P. Naughton, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-10-17** Referred to the committee on Municipalities and Regional Government `referral-committee`
- **2017-10-19** Senate concurred
- **2017-10-24** Hearing scheduled for 10/31/2017 from 11:00 AM-01:00 PM in A-1
- **2017-10-31** Bill reported favorably by committee as changed and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-11-02** Committee reported that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next sitting
- **2017-11-02** Rules suspended
- **2017-11-02** Read second and ordered to a third reading `reading-2`
- **2017-11-20** Read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-3`
- **2017-11-22** Read; and placed in the Orders of the Day for the next session
- **2017-12-14** Taken out of the Orders of the Day
- **2017-12-14** Read second, ordered to a third reading, read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-2, reading-3`
- **2017-12-18** Enacted `passage`
- **2017-12-18** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2017-12-21** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 158 of the Acts of 2017 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b66f5667-11fb-43f4-9002-9ed0f6759735`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).