DAVID FLAHERTY
WESTFIELD – The Legislative and Ordinance Committee will take no action to bring out a motion to extend the terms of council members and the mayor to four years, until January when the new mayor and city council representatives are sworn into office.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty made the motion to extend the terms of the City Council members and mayor from the current two years to a four-year term, a concept that has been discussed for years because many of the people who hold and have held those offices felt that two years in office is too short a period to push projects forward.
Assistant City Solicitor Shanna Reed said Tuesday night at the L&O meeting that the process of extending terms of elected officials is complicated and regulated by the City Charter, which cannot be easily changed.
DAN ALLIE
The City Council did submit a home-rule petition to the state Legislature several years ago after a year-long review of the charter, but focused on “low hanging fruit”, items in the charter which needed to be brought into compliance with current state and federal law.
Those changes were granted after a review by attorneys advising the state legislature and did not require further local action.
Reed said substantive changes to the Charter may require several steps including both a local referendum and approval of a home-rule petition.
“We really have not gotten into the nitty-gritty of the process,” Reed said. “We don’t have a sense from the council that there is a desire to do this.”
RALPH FIGY
Reed suggested that the committee wait until the City Council, which will have five new members, is sworn into office in January. If a majority of the council members support moving the term issue forward, the Law Department will do further research to determine possible avenues to amend the City Charter.
The L&O considered five other pending motions, but will bring two of those motions to the floor of the council meeting Thursday night.
At-large Councilor Dan Allie, chairman of the Public Health & Safety Committee, had referred the motion to the L&O to require residents to remove snow and ice from hydrants located in front of their property. The L&O voted to bring that motion out with a negative recommendation.
Reed said that only one community, Greenfield, has local legislation requiring residents to clear ice and snow from hydrants.
Reed said that most residents, acting in self-interest, do clear fire hydrants to allow access in an emergency and that the Fire Department, Water Resource and Public Works collaborated on clearing hydrants.
The L&O discussed the issue in September. Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, at the committee’s Sept. 15 meeting said ““It sounds like a no brainer, but it’s more complicated. We have had some discussion to require people to clear snow from around fire hydrants which sound reasonable because it’s for their own protection.”
“The issue is that snow banks are often several feet high or that the plows don’t get to the curb so people would have to clear the road to open access to the hydrant, which I don’t think is reasonable,” Figy said.
The L&O will give a positive recommendation to change the City Ordinance regulating the Cultural Council to bring it into compliance with state law. State law states that the council may have between five and 22 members and that a quorum is half plus one of the membership attending a specific meeting.
City ordinance set the membership at 19, which requires a quorum of 10 members. The committee will propose adopting the state language, which permits a sliding membership and quorum.
