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Date: 12/14/2022
WESTFIELD – Though state law doesn’t mandate a ballot vote for amending the city charter, state legislators are likely to require one for any major change.
Assistant City Solicitor Shanna Reed told the ad-hoc Charter Committee on Dec. 7 that for most cases, changing the charter simply requires a request from city councilors and a special act of the state Legislature.
She said the history of charter changes in other cities, however, shows that legislators tend to approve major changes – like lengthening the mayor’s term to four years – conditional on a vote by residents.
Councilor Ralph Figy said he felt the council showed “a lot of support for it going before the voters.”
In November, the City Council tasked Figy, along with fellow councilors Brent Bean II and Dave Flaherty, with examining about 20 potential changes to the charter, which was last updated 10 years ago. The council did not authorize changing its own two-year terms, but did ask that the committee study a four-year term for the mayor.
The Charter Committee is also looking at standardizing the city’s procedure for filling mid-term vacancies on elected boards. The current procedure for a City Council vacancy is to offer the seat to the runner-up in the most recent election. For vacancies on the School Committee and the Municipal Light Board, however, the city solicits applicants and the remaining members of the board meet jointly with the City Council to pick a replacement.
Committee members spoke of applying the City Council procedure to all three elected boards, but said first they have to determine who counts as a “candidate” – after a ward election with only one name on the ballot, would a vacant seat be offered a write-in candidate with only a handful of votes?
“There are different ways to define a defeated candidate, and it’s done different ways in different communities,” said Reed.
The council had debated this topic earlier this year. Bean suggested on Dec. 7 that the charter set a cutoff of 50 votes, to match the number of signatures that candidates need to qualify for the ballot.
Figy said he thinks his fellow councilors are more likely to prefer requiring special elections to fill any vacancies, which would be a change for all three boards.
Reed said filling vacancies by special election would commit the city to a large expense every time someone dies, moves or resigns in the middle of a term. Because of that commitment, she said, this is another proposal that might cause legislators to require a ratification vote at the polls.
Flaherty said another item he’d like to see changed in the charter has to do with the amendment process itself, which he characterized as too easy.
“It’s actually harder to change ordinances than to change the charter,” he said.
He suggested that future charter changes should require public hearings, a second confirmation vote by the council, or a supermajority vote.
Other changes under consideration include allowing the mayor to appoint a chair to the School Committee, rather than serving in that role ex-officio; allowing the City Council to mandate an annual budgeting process; allowing the City Council to direct the mayor to detail the costs of any labor union contract he signs; requiring pay ranges to be included in municipal job descriptions; and establishing a right of city councilors to request documents and data from city departments without having to file a formal public records request.
The City Council is expected to hear the committee’s report and host a public hearing on proposed charter changes at its Dec. 15 meeting.