By Joe Lynch

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Somerville voters adopted its city charter, which established the basic form of government upon its incorporation as a city in 1871. Back then, we had only 4 wards and elections for Mayor and Aldermen were held every year. By 1934, the population of the city had exploded to well over 100,000 residents. Our form of government still consisted of the executive position of Mayor and the legislative body called the Board of Aldermen. By then the city, by charter change, had been divided into seven distinct wards, we added four aldermen at large positions, and had already changed our election cycle to every two years. More routine maintenance items have been performed on the city charter over the years. We’ve deleted provisions of the charter that are no longer needed, we’ve added provisions necessary to adapt to our ever-changing current and future municipal needs and desires. But over the last 75 years, we have not revised, nor even had a significant widespread public discussion about, our charter and how our form of government is constructed.

I think it’s time we did.

Under the Capuano administration, a charter committee was established and instructed to study revising the city charter and report their findings to the then Mayor and Board of Aldermen. It took the “Somerville Charter Committee” over one year to study the issue. In March of 1995, the final report was submitted to the Capuano administration and to the Board of Alderman for further action. Two of the recommended changes addressed the issue of the length of term certain elected officials would serve. The committee recommended that the length of term for the Mayor and the Aldermen at Large positions be for four year terms instead of two. The non- at large (the specific ward aldermen) would still be up for election every two years. Something tells me the ward Aldermen from the specific wards were not exactly crazy about that idea.

Another change that was recommended was to have the School Committee consist of seven members to be elected at large. I also suspect the ward specific School Committee members at that time did not exactly give this recommendation a passing grade.

None of those recommendations were ever adopted.

There were other recommended changes to the charter but none addressed the central issue I’ve long thought about. Are we in Somerville getting our monies worth from the current structure of our city charter? We require that our Mayor, the Board of Alderman and members of the School Committee run every two years. After my 2007 campaign to represent Ward 5 at City Hall, I think I’ve got a partial answer to the question I was asked on the campaign trail: ‚ÄúWhy does it take the elected officials so long to get anything done?‚Äù From my own personal experience, the answer lies in the fact that with two-year terms, almost a year is spent campaigning and raising money for the campaign. Campaigning and fundraising are necessary aspects of political life but inevitably distract the incumbent from their primary governmental function for a significant part of their two-year term.

I think it’s time we examine the four-year term for all elected positions.

Another question about our charter needs to be studied as well. Are we operating under an antiquated form of government that hinders our abilities to plan for and react to our rapidly changing lives in 21st century Somerville? Hundreds of cities and towns across Massachusetts have adopted the ‚Äúcentral business manager‚Äù model as part of their charter. In some instances, they still elect a mayor, but the real nuts and bolts, day to day, hard core decision making is performed by a professional manager who reports to both the executive(the Mayor) and the legislative body(the Board of Aldermen). The person who occupies that position, in most cases, is employed by mutual agreement of the executive and legislative branch of government. I think exploring this option is necessary for our city’s survival in today’s complex and fast paced business environment.  As the old saying goes: ‚ÄúGovernment is big business.‚Äù Why not at least explore having a professional business manager run that part of our municipal government. The current Mayor may not like this aspect of any future charter review. I would venture to say that Mayor Curtatone would be perfectly content to end the discussion at extending the term of Mayor to four years. Hell, if I were Mayor, I probably would too. 

I say if we’re going to spend the time and resources to discuss this issue, then we put it all on the table. And that includes a review of the function and construct of the Somerville School Committee.

In the perfect world, the city will form an independent charter review commission (independent ‚Ķ.. not one of the oft criticized ‚Äúhack‚Äù committees), present its findings to the present city government and then let the voters decide, by ballot, on whether or not to make the recommended changes to the way WE run this city. Hey, I can always dream, can’t I?

Next time I see AlderMAN Maryann Heuston and AlderMAN Rebekah Gewirtz, I’m going to ask them as members of the Board of AlderMEN, if they have any suggestions they would like to offer up regarding charter change?

Joe Lynch is a spokesperson for the Magoun Square Neighborhood Association and a former candidate for Ward 5 Alderman.

Please email your comments to Joe at: jplcorp2004@yahoo.com