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Date: 12/1/2022
WESTFIELD — The City Council has formed an ad-hoc committee to review the City Charter, which defines the powers and functions of elected officials and the organization and processes of local government, and to make recommendations for amendments.
The ad-hoc committee, consisting of councilors Dave Flaherty, chair, Brent Bean and Ralph Figy, will look at 19 proposed changes. The City Council discussed 20 proposals at its Nov. 17 meeting, and approved investigating all but one.
One change under consideration is changing the mayor’s term from two years to four years. The change would not affect the current mayoral term. Councilors Dan Allie, Michael Burns and Nicholas Morganelli voted against including this proposal on the ad-hoc Charter Committee’s agenda.
Allie said in 2017, the council tried to pass a home-rule petition to extend the term of mayor to four years, but it was defeated by voters in a non-binding ballot question in the November elections that year, with 67 percent against and 30 percent in favor. He said Agawam defeated a similar question in last month’s election. Allie said he believes extending the term would affect voter turnout in off-year municipal elections.
At-large Councilor Kristen Mello said she is not opposed to a four-year term, if recall is an option.
“This topic was written this way with no limits. We’d be open to discussion,” Flaherty said.
“I’m against it unless it goes to the people,” said Councilor James Adams, who said he would however agree to send it to committee for discussion.
During the public participation session earlier in the meeting, Westfield Mayor Michael McCabe asked the council to consider exploring the term change. He listed Easthampton, Greenfield, Holyoke, Northampton, Pittsfield, West Springfield and Springfield as cities that have four-year mayoral terms, and said the only ones that don’t are Chicopee, which is looking to extend the term, and Agawam, where the question was defeated in November.
McCabe said there is a learning curve to the job, such as learning the 26 different boards and commissions all with different levels of hiring and authority. The organizational chart at City Hall is much more convoluted than the traditional pyramid shape found in, for example, the Police Department, where he previously worked, he added.
“You have to learn the names and faces,” McCabe said, adding he was fortunate to know most of them, but he didn’t know what they did.
He said mayors as they come in are immediately expected to understand all aspects of budgeting and finance. They also have to manage relations with 14 different labor unions in the city, “all with different needs, wants and desires,” and innumerable personal service agreements for positions outside the scope of union contracts.
“There are real issues as far as getting up to speed and understanding the different processes,” McCabe said.
The only item the council removed from the ad-hoc committee’s agenda was a proposal to look at four-year terms for city councilors, to be staggered like the School Committee.
Ward 3 Councilor Bridget Matthews-Kane noted that the whole U.S. House of Representatives is up for election every two years.
“What’s good for the House of Representatives is good for us,” she said, adding that if the council is even thinking about extending the office of mayor to four years, “it is critical that the City Council be on two.”
Matthews-Kane also said that incumbents are already easily re-elected to City Council, as was shown in the last election, when the council was returned intact by voters. Ten out of 12 councilors agreed, with only Flaherty and Council President William Onyski voting to send the item to committee for discussion.
“That item fails and won’t be discussed. That’s off the table completely,” Onyski said.
The rest of the items on the list that were sent to the ad-hoc committee for discussion include reviewing procedures for filling vacant seats on governing boards, requiring a certain number of votes for write-in candidates to be recorded as official runners-up, reviewing wording in city appointments and the process for approval of labor contracts, among other items.
Allie said a lot of the topics are important, and expressed concern that the public would have difficulty attending and giving input to committee meetings that are scheduled on Wednesdays beginning at 5 p.m.
Flaherty said six committee meetings have already been scheduled for that time slot, but the public participation portion could be moved to later in the agendas at 6 p.m. in order to accommodate more people. The first meeting was scheduled for Nov. 30, with future meetings set for Dec. 7 at 5 p.m., and a public hearing Dec. 15, during the City Council’s regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m.
Flaherty said now that the committee has approval to investigate, items will be discussed at length in the ad-hoc committee meetings. He said some items will come back to the City Council with motions to amend the charter, and those items will have a public hearing.
“We will have a public hearing on any potential charter amendment,” Flaherty said. He added that all committee meeting agendas will be posted on www.cityofwestfield.org.
The ad-hoc committee is hoping to complete its work by February, in order to get the amended City Charter to the state House and Senate early in the session for approval as a special act. If passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, any amendments made would then become law.