How Municipal Documents are Executed

Last week I shared some thoughts on how Municipal Boards might take advantage of MGL c.110G (the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) to execute documents electronically during the pandemic. I recently heard from a lawyer who represents a number of municipalities who, while acknowledging the legality of my suggestion, offered a different way for municipal boards to execute documents. Here’s how it would work: 

The municipal board, at a properly held meeting, would vote to authorize a specific town employee to execute documents such as Orders of Conditions or Special Permits on behalf of the board. A certified copy of that vote would then be recorded at the appropriate registry of deeds.

For new documents created after that, the names of the members of the board would be typed onto the form and then the designated employee would affix his or her “wet” signature to the document with the annotation that this signature is made "on behalf of the Board pursuant to the vote dated xxxx and recorded at the registry of deeds in book yyyyy, page zzz."

I think this is a wise and workable procedure. It’s akin to executing a Power of Attorney authorizing another to sign documents on your behalf.