The city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts is now operating under a new charter.
76 percent of voters in Pittsfield voted yes on Election Day to replace the charter established in 1932. The city’s new constitution makes it easier to file citizen initiative petitions and initiate recalls of elected officials by modernizing language. The charter also extends the mayoral term from two to four years, while city council terms remain at two years. Mayor Dan Bianchisays this creates a great dynamic.
“One of the things I was hoping that the charter commission would do would depoliticize the charter and I think this does it,” Bianchi said. “I felt, quite frankly, there was a couple of city councilors who were campaigning within a couple of months of me taking office. Setting the stage for an election cycle that was only 18, 20 months away. That just creates a certain level of dysfunction in government.”
City Council Vice President Jonathan Lothrop says he supported equal terms for the mayor and council members throughout the drafting process that began in August 2012.
“A lot of people who voted ‘no’ told me specifically that was the main reason they were voting no,” Lothrop said. “I think on some levels it’s good to have a chief executive that has a little more time. You don’t have to always be running for office.”
The charter also gives city government the option to pay school board committee members. City Clerk Linda Tyer says the mayor and the city council would decide whether or not there are enough funds to do so.
“There are communities who literally don’t have enough people to serve on their school committee,” Bianchi said. “There are communities whose school committee can’t take a vote because they can’t achieve a quorum. That’s very problematic. So if we’ve got the capability or possibility in our charter of at least being able to pay a stipend or some sort of compensation in the future to the school committee, if we find a point in time when we’re having a tough time attracting people then let’s have that available to us.”
The new charter also changes how the city fills vacant positions.
“The changes for the city council and the school committee is that under the terms of the prior charter if a vacancy occurred when there were more than six months left in a person’s term there would be a special election held to fill the vacancy,” Tyer explained. “In the new charter, the vacancy is filled by members of the city council and if it’s the school committee it’s filled by a joint meeting of the city council and the school committee.”
The provision decreases the likelihood of special elections, which Lothrop says puts more power in the hands of the city council.
“The voters tire of special elections,” Lothrop said. “They cost of lot of money. They consume a lot time and energy. They typically have extremely low turnout, which to some extent makes it difficult for people to have some sense of legitimacy I guess you could say.”
Saying operating a government has become increasingly complicated, both Bianchi and Lothrop support a city manager position. But, Lothrop doesn’t believe residents are willing to have another six-figure salary on the city’s payroll.
“If you have more of a technocratic government and less of a political one, you might get a little bit of different result,” Lothrop said. “To paraphrase it differently, good management saves money it doesn’t cost money.”
Lothrop says his biggest concern is the city not being able to attract skilled people to run for mayor in the future.
“If you were running a $130 million corporation, what would the CEO make?” he questioned. “It wouldn’t be $87,000 a year.”
Finalization of the charter will occur after a 10-day period allowing for vote recount petitions. Provisions relating to term length would go into effect for the 2015 municipal elections.
