Oak Bluffs voters were in a stingy mood Tuesday during the first night of their annual town meeting, as they shot down a proposal to increase the hotel rooms tax by two per cent and stripped most town elected officials of their stipends. Only a modest increase in the meals tax was approved on a night that saw little progress on a warrant freighted with complicated spending decisions.

The meeting was adjourned just before 11 p.m. and continues tonight at 7 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

In Edgartown all 63 warrant articles passed with little ado. An article from police chief Paul Condlin to set regulations for electric mobility devices known as Segways was the surprise issue of contention at the meeting.

One voter chided the town for over-regulation and said the new rules would single out people with permanent or temporary disabilities.

But Chief Condlin said the regulations were designed to prevent town roads and walkways from being overrun with motorized scooters.

West Tisbury voters found compromise on a dispute over whether to dredge the Mill Pond, agreeing to spend $25,000 to begin a long-term study of the entire Mill Pond watershed. The compromise was led by Kent Healy, the chief critic of the dredging plan. And despite some scattered concern about whether they were violating the principles separating church and state, voters also agreed to contribute $150,000 to a restoration project at the historic First Congregational Church in the town center.

The congenial meeting included warm accolades and red roses at the outset for retiring police chief Beth Toomey, whose last day on the job was Tuesday.

Tisbury voters dealt with a huge 41-article warrant in just over two hours, approving everything on it.

So quick was it that moderator Deborah Medders claimed it as a milestone in her career — the longest warrant, yet the first time it had been over in just one night.

The great majority of articles passed unanimously, most without discussion or debate.

The only issue on which there was any significant division of opinion was a proposal by the selectmen to set up a town affordable housing trust fund. Several speakers doubted the need for yet another affordable housing bureaucracy in Martha’s Vineyard.

It eventually went to a standing vote, but was passed 89 to 36.

Complete stories about the four annual town meetings will appear in the Friday Gazette, along with results from annual town elections on Thursday.