---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act authorizing the town of Wales to establish a department of public works"
description: "By Mr. Fattman, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 1297) of Ryan C. Fattman (by vote of town) for legislation to establish a department of public works in the town of Wales. Municipalities and Regional Government. [Local approval received]"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "193rd"
identifier: "S 1297"
citation: "Massachusetts S 1297 (193rd)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ryan C. Fattman"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 15
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2023-02-16"
last_action: "2024-02-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/562b74b1-0d4c-4198-8cd0-5691ccc393b9"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/S1297"
source_hash: "f2522eb464a967bac9d10c844923cd164abb2e9a4752ec2318178731582c5ad2"
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 S 1297 (193rd) — An Act authorizing the town of Wales to establish a department of public works

By Mr. Fattman, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 1297) of Ryan C. Fattman (by vote of town) for legislation to establish a department of public works in the town of Wales. 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/193/S1297.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Ryan C. Fattman — primary (person)
- Todd M. Smola — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-02-16** Referred to the committee on Municipalities and Regional Government `referral-committee`
- **2023-02-16** House concurred
- **2023-04-04** Hearing scheduled for 04/11/2023 from 11:00 AM-01:00 PM in A-1
- **2023-07-03** Bill reported favorably by committee and placed in the Orders of the Day for the next session `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-07-27** Read second and ordered to a third reading `reading-2`
- **2023-11-20** Taken out of the Orders of the Day
- **2023-11-20** Read third, amended and passed to be engrossed `passage, reading-3`
- **2023-11-22** Read; and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling `referral-committee`
- **2023-12-21** Committee reported that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next sitting
- **2023-12-21** Rules suspended
- **2023-12-21** Read second and ordered to a third reading `reading-2`
- **2024-01-25** Read third and passed to be engrossed `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-01-29** Enacted `passage`
- **2024-01-29** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2024-02-06** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 17 of the Acts of 2024 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/562b74b1-0d4c-4198-8cd0-5691ccc393b9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).