Charter Chaos: When Studies Don't Matter - Book 2
- mcc021557
- Apr 14
- 4 min read
by Eunice Browne
Call to action!
Please plan to attend the special meeting of the City Council on Tues. April 4th at 6PM at City Hall or on Zoom:
What is a charter:
A City Charter is the Constitution of that community. It dictates how our government operates.
Medford's current Charter can be found here:
In order to modify or change the Medford charter, a mutually agreed on charter must be forwarded to the state house to appear on the November ballot. This week the city council will complete changes to the Charter and send them to the Mayor.
How did we get here:
The Charter Study Committee (CSC), appointed by the Mayor, met from December 2022 to October 2024 to study the current city charter and ultimately draft a new one in conjunction with the Collins Center.
The CSC met for almost 2 years, holding 58 public meetings, 3 public hearings, a survey and many outreach efforts, the CSC presented their draft charter and final report to the Mayor on October 11, 2024.
Our original charter was overly simplified at only 2 ½ pages long.
A copy of the draft charter can be found here:
Per the process, the Mayor reviewed the draft charter and made any amendments she saw fit (very few) and then passed it to the City Council for their review.
Beginning in January 2025, the CC Governance Committee held five meetings and went line by line through each section and proposed amendments. It was then voted out of the City Council on March 11 and returned to the Mayor for review.
As of today, the Mayor and City Council have not arrived at a mutually agreed upon Charter for submission to the State.
Where do the City Council and Mayor differ?
Composition of the City Council.
Mayor: 8 Ward Representatives (one representing each ward) and 3 At-Large representatives for an 11-member City Council as recommended by CSC.
President Bears and the CC: proposed a hybrid District/At Large council with 2 wards apiece combining into Districts to make up 4 Districts each with a District representative and 5 At Large councilors.
opinion: He had many reasons for doing this but after reading between the lines, this would give OR an advantage to get more of their members elected, particularly from the more affluent sections of the community. They want more power.
Remove the Mayor as Chair of the School Committee
CSC recommended keeping Mayor as Chair of School Committee.
City Council proposed removing the Mayor as Chair of the School Committee.
The Mayor accepted this change before returning it to the city council.
Last week at the April 8th City Council Meeting, the CC discussed the Mayor’s final proposal.
Instead of agreeing to the compromise of keeping wards and removing the Mayor as Chair of the School Committee, the CC added a new amendment to remove the Mayor from the School Committee entirely.
The Mayor has stated that she will NOT accept this amendment by advice from the consultants – the Collins Center.
Removing the Mayor from SC is NOT a best practice. Removing the Mayor from the School Committee was NOT discussed in the five meetings held by the City Council to go over the Charter. They passed their final version to the Mayor without this provision included.
Why are they adding it now when they should be rushing to forward this to the state in order for it to appear on the November ballot? (That they are coming up with this at the 11th hour is very suspect and yet another power grab for Our Revolution.)
The meeting on Tuesday April 15th is the final chance for the City Council to send the proposed charter back to the Mayor in a form that she can accept and then send it to the State Legislature for their approval to be placed on the November ballot for the residents to vote on.
This is a snapshot of the activity on the charter over the past several months. There are several posts online regarding the topic; and the CSC Chair, Milva McDonald has provided invaluable insight into the deliberations of the CSC. Please take a look for more information on Facebook and/or Reddit.
You can also review the CSC’s work on our page on the city website:
The agenda for the CC Special Meeting includes the most current draft of the charter and the most recent proposed amendments by the CC:
I urge you to attend and share your opinion on the city charter.
One last thing to illustrate the CC power grab.
Please listen to Zac speak at this Governance Committee meeting on Feb 14 2024 regarding the charter process. He begins the topic at the 2-minute mark; but at the 9 min 20 second mark, he labels the CSC illegitimate because we were appointed by the Mayor and not elected.
He has dismissed us and demeaned us at every turn, and it has been clear from the beginning that he had no interest in our work whatsoever.
I was a member of the Charter Study Commission but want to stress that the opinions provided here are my own.
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