Chelsea’s Charter Review Committee turns to the part of the city charter that governs the City Council itself at its next meeting, Monday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in City Council Committee Room 305 at City Hall, 500 Broadway.
The agenda, posted by committee chair and Council President Roberto Jimenez-Rivera, lists three items: a quick review of the committee’s purpose and process, public comment, and a review of Part II of the charter, City Council.
What Part II covers
Part II sets up the city’s legislative branch: an 11-member council, with three councillors elected at-large and one from each of the city’s eight districts. It also covers how the council picks its president and vice president, how vacancies are filled, what counts as a quorum, how councillors are paid, and the line between the council and the city manager, who runs the day-to-day business of the city. Any change the committee recommends there would shape the body that has the final say on the committee’s work.
Three of the committee’s nine members sit on the council: Jimenez-Rivera, Vice President Norieliz DeJesus and District 2 Councillor Deron Hines. The other members are Karla Alvarado, John Byrnes, Katherine Cabral, Lois Contreras Gutierrez, Jen Hassell and Kelly Zimmerhanzel.
Where the review stands
The committee has already voted to give the city manager a term of up to five years, to require seven council votes to fire a manager, matching the seven needed to hire one, and to bar anyone who served on the council or School Committee in the prior 12 months from the job, as we reported in September. It also took up deleting the receivership language in Part X, a leftover from the state takeover of the 1990s.
Under the rules the committee adopted in August, a proposed change needs six of the nine members, a two-thirds vote, to go to the City Council as a recommendation. If fewer than six members are present, any change is subject to reconsideration at the next meeting. The council then decides what to send to the Legislature as a home rule petition. When he announced the review in June, Jimenez-Rivera said the goal was to finish by the end of the year and file before the Legislature’s 2027 deadline.
How to take part
Each meeting opens with public comment, two minutes per speaker. Residents can also submit their own charter proposals through an online form on the city’s website, and anyone whose proposal is on an agenda gets up to three minutes to speak for it. The committee does not allow remote participation, so comments must be made in person.
The meeting notice is on the city’s website.