At Saturday’s Annual Town Meeting, residents voted 72-51 to take no action on an article requiring fingerprinting for common victualer licenses, aligning with the Select Board’s recommendation on the matter.

When asked by a resident why the Select Board recommended taking no action on the article, chair Joe Clark stated his belief that the Select Board has made progress on the town’s common victualer (CV) licensing process.

“I would say we are above most towns [in the state],” Clark claimed. He added that he felt the intent of the bylaw amendment was coming from a good place, but upon review the board perceived the proposal as “overstepping our bounds a bit.”

Clark noted that feedback from the community — in particular, the Hopkinton Chamber of Commerce — also informed the board’s perspective.

“We didn’t feel it was in the best interest of the town to move forward with this piece and add an additional cost to this process at this point in time,” he concluded.

The motion as written in Article 29 of the Annual Town Meeting warrant would have adjusted existing civil fingerprinting bylaws to include CV licenses. Currently, ice cream truck vendors are required to be fingerprinted under the bylaw.

The article has been under consideration by the Select Board since late last year. Board members expressed support for bringing the article to Annual Town Meeting but previously shared concerns over the balance of privacy with safety concerns. Hopkinton would have been the only Massachusetts community to require fingerprinting for CV licenses if Article 29 was approved.

Meeting members who spoke about the article mostly voiced their support for changing the bylaw. Anne Mattina claimed it was a safety measure that would improve the town’s credibility. She also did not believe it would disincentivize businesses from opening up shop in town.

“It shouldn’t discourage any honorable or reputable business from doing business in Hopkinton,” she said.

Karen Crum said the fingerprinting requirement “screens for suitability” as well as picking up on the backgrounds of those operating businesses in town. She also advocated for the overreach the Select Board is concerned about, claiming that the town needs overreach right now “to gain public trust that public safety concerns are met.”

“I think this is the next step in building our faith back in you,” said Beth Malloy. She and others alluded to how CV fingerprinting would protect Hopkinton youth, who they claimed are the majority of employees at businesses with these licenses.

Malloy also referenced issues with the town’s CV policies in regard to Petros “Peter” Sismanis. The former Hillers Pizza owner was convicted in 2025 of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years of age. He grabbed and kissed a 16-year-old employee in the basement of the restaurant in 2023. The town repeatedly has been criticized for continuing to issue CV licenses to Hillers Pizza despite a prior assault in 1998 that led to Sismanis registering as a sex offender along with later accusations of misbehavior.

Other discussion on the matter revolved around the logistics of implementation and how the town would adjudicate issuing a license if an applicant is flagged in the fingerprinting process.

Anne Beauchamp voiced support for the article but wondered about its effectiveness. “I do feel like fingerprinting only the applicant would give a false sense of security,” she shared.

Prior to the vote affirming no action on Article 29, member Matt Kizner noted the town’s CV licensing process is “an active item” for the Select Board.

“There is still very real work being done here,” said Kizner, adding that the board will be looking at a new draft CV license policy at its next meeting on May 5.