Chelsea’s Charter Review Committee has voted to give the city manager a term of up to five years, to require seven council votes to fire a manager, and to bar anyone who sat on the City Council or School Committee in the previous 12 months from being hired for the job. All three passed 9-0 at the committee’s September 22 meeting, according to minutes posted September 29.
That explains why those sections were missing from the committee’s September 28 packet, as we noted last week: they had already been approved. The committee’s recommendations go to the City Council, which has the final say on what is sent forward.
The city manager
- Hiring and term (Sec. 4-1). The council still needs seven votes to appoint a manager, who would serve a term of up to five years that the council can renew or extend. The manager must have at least five years of full-time experience as a city or town manager or assistant, or equivalent experience, and a bachelor’s degree. New: nobody who served on the City Council or School Committee in the prior 12 months can be appointed, which members said would further reduce politics in the hiring. The manager must move to Chelsea within 12 months unless the council waives it. Members debated taking away the waiver and kept it.
- Removal (new Sec. 4-5). Today the terms for removing a manager are set in each manager’s employment contract, so they can differ from one manager to the next, committee chair Roberto Jimenez-Rivera said. The new section puts them in the charter: a preliminary resolution stating the reasons, adopted by seven votes, which may suspend the manager for up to 45 days; the right to a public hearing; and a final resolution, also by seven votes. The draft said “majority”; member Karla Alvarado moved to make it seven votes, to match the hiring threshold.
- Acting manager (Sec. 4-6). The manager names a stand-in for temporary absences. The council can revoke that designation by a two-thirds vote in the first ten working days, and by seven votes after that. If the job becomes vacant, the council names an acting manager by seven votes, for up to four months at a time.
Other changes approved
- Future charter reviews (Sec. 9-7) would happen every year ending in seven, not zero, since this review came less than five years after the last one. The committee would have nine members: three city councillors, one School Committee member and five residents, and the council president’s appointments would need council approval. Approved 9-0.
- Quorum (Sec. 9-5(b)). At the city solicitor’s request, the committee deleted language letting fewer than a quorum of a city board “meet and adjourn from time to time,” to avoid conflicts with the Open Meeting Law. Approved 7-0, with two members not yet arrived.
Tabled, no consensus
- Removing board members who skip meetings (Sec. 9-5(f)). The draft would let a board declare a seat vacant if a member missed three meetings in a row, or half the meetings in a year, without leave. Some members said boards should ask the city manager to remove a member instead; others wanted a real attendance rule even if it makes volunteers harder to find.
- Barring people with felony convictions (Sec. 9-6). Several members called a blanket ban on anyone convicted of a felony from holding city office excessive and suggested listing specific offenses or setting a time limit. The city solicitor said state law does not allow automatic, blanket expunging of criminal records.
- The receivership references (Part X). The solicitor said deleting the charter’s references to the state receiver that we wrote about is acceptable, but recommended adding language to keep the city’s ordinances and administrative code in force. The committee tabled all four transition sections until that wording is drafted.
- Two more city manager sections, on appointments (Sec. 4-2) and administration (Sec. 4-3), were also held over.
The tabled items were set for the September 28 meeting; minutes of that meeting have not been posted. Residents can submit proposals on any part of the charter until October 21.