Residents ask Charter Review Committee for stronger checks on mayor, more transparency and remote access

The Charter Review Committee for the City of Everett opened a public hearing and heard residents urge several specific amendments to the city charter, including tighter checks on mayoral appointments, clearer rules for mayoral absence, publication of the capital improvement plan, and expanded remote access to meetings.

J. P. Becta, a resident, told the committee she has reviewed the committee’s redlines and called the charter “our constitution for the next 10 years.” She urged that the mayor’s appointive candidates be presented to the City Council within 30 days and that a candidate not approved by the council “shall not continue in the job,” and that the charter explicitly prevent de facto appointments when a rejected candidate remains in office. Becta also asked that the charter define mayoral absence as being out of state for more than three consecutive days and that explanations accompany mayoral requests on council agendas and any requests for transfers from free cash.

Becta asked that charter provisions using “a percentage of registered voters” be changed to a percentage of actual voters from the previous municipal election that included a mayoral contest. She also urged increasing the Charter Review Committee to 10 members — five city council appointees and five mayoral appointees — and proposed that committee members forfeit stipends if they miss at least half of their scheduled meetings. On the budget, she requested that the city publish its capital improvement plan on the city website within 14 days of presentation to the City Council.

Paulister Reidy, a resident, told the committee the proposed changes do not sufficiently rebalance power between the mayor and the City Council. Reidy said the charter should allow the council a stronger veto over mayoral appointments and asked why board and commission meetings were not recorded or televised. He called for lower thresholds for recall petitions (suggesting 20–25 percent of actual voters in the last municipal election), more time for signature gathering, term limits, and removing the mayor’s vote from school committee actions — all items he said were raised by residents but “ignored” in the draft revisions.

Committee procedure items: the committee’s chair read the public hearing item and noted the panel had previously adopted a five-minute limit for members of the public who wish to speak; that time limit was in effect for the hearing. Staff confirmed a sign-in sheet was available. After taking public comment, the committee closed the hearing, accepted the minutes of the Charter Review Committee meeting of 02/20/2025 and set its next meeting for April 10, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. The chair reminded members the committee must deliver its recommendations to the City Clerk on or before May 1; the clerk must then transmit the report to the City Council by May 15, and the council is charged with acting on the recommendations on or before June 30.

No formal charter amendments or votes on draft language were taken at the meeting; the hearing collected public input for the committee’s pending report to the City Council. Several public commenters asked the committee to pursue specific drafting changes described above.

The committee will meet again on April 10 to continue its work and to finalize recommendations for transmittal to the City Clerk.