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Date: 12/2/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During a meeting on Nov. 18, the Northampton City Council unanimously approved two readings of an act that seeks to exempt the city from appointments to the Northampton License Commission based on party affiliation.
Under the current state law, Northampton is required to have at least one Democrat and one Republican on the License Commission, which always features three members in total. Despite this rule, the city is asking the state Legislature to end this requirement, as Mayor David Narkewicz described the rule as part of a “bygone era” when the city did have partisan local elections.
“I can only assume that this was a way to try to make sure there was party equity amongst this very powerful board,” said Narkewicz. “But today, it just doesn’t really make sense to me in a non-partisan environment where we don’t run with party affiliations.”
According to the city website, the Northampton License Commission is an advisory, regulatory, and adjudicatory multi-member body charged with the oversight and administration of licenses in the city of Northampton for the service and sale of alcoholic beverages, operation of restaurants, hotels, inns and lodging houses, among other services. The commission has the power to grant, suspend, or revoke permits at any time under Mass. General Law.
According to Narkewicz, the other organization in Northampton that is under the law that requires equal representation of party affiliation in appointing members is the Board of Registrars. The city is not seeking to be exempt from the law for this board however, mainly because the Board of Registrars still conducts party elections, primaries, state elections and federal elections.
“It makes a lot of sense for the License Commission, which is a really important commission,” said Councilor Karen Foster, when speaking on the possibility of being exempt from this law. “The pool of people who are eligible for appointment to that commission is larger if we’re removing party affiliation from it.”
According to records provided by the city clerk office, Northampton currently features 10,746 registered Democratic voters and 651 Republican voters. In other words, 50 percent of voters in Northampton are Democrat, while 3 percent of registered voters are considered Republican. Around 9,870 are considered unenrolled, which comes out to 46 percent of registered voters in the city. These statistics are based on the Nov. 2 Biennial Municipal Election that just occurred.
With both readings passed during the meeting, the next step will be to file the act to the Legislature, which – according to Narkewicz – has left formal session for the rest of the year. The goal is to file the act now before the second session begins so at least state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa and state Sen. Jo Comerford can have an opportunity to look at it. There is currently no timetable for when the act could be approved.