GREENFIELD — The City Council has voted to uphold Mayor Roxann Wedegartner’s veto of a proposed city charter change that impacts whether a mayor can serve as the elected chair of the School Committee.
“In normal circumstances, the veto does not necessarily have to stand; the council can override that veto with a vote,” At-Large Councilor Christine Forgey explained. “In a charter situation, it is a bit different. The council voted. The mayor has overridden the council vote by a veto. I have read her explanation; I understand it. It makes sense, having been a mayor before.”
She added that the revised charter cannot be sent to the state for approval with the council in disagreement over a proposed charter change.
The proposed change, which had received a unanimous positive recommendation from the Appointments and Ordinances Committee and City Council, would exclude the mayor from being eligible to serve as the committee’s elected chair. This does not mean, however, a mayor would be excluded from serving as the chair in the absence of the elected chair.
In her memo to City Council, Wedegartner noted the change would create an inconsistency in the charter, in that the mayor is the seventh member of the School Committee, “with all the same power and duties as the members elected by the voters.”
“In practice, that makes the mayor a voting member, and, presumably eligible to be elected to be chair of the committee by its members,” she wrote.
And in all likelihood, Wedegartner added, most mayors would not choose to be chair, given the “complexities and responsibilities” of both jobs. She noted that she declined a nomination in 2020 to serve as chair during the reorganization meeting.
After an extensive study, the Charter Review Committee finished its work in April 2021 and presented its findings in a report to the Appointments and Ordinances Committee that June. While this article did not receive a particular recommendation from the committee, it did receive a positive recommendation from the Appointments and Ordinances Committee to add language to the charter that excluded the mayor from serving as chair.
“I went to several of these meetings and there seemed to be a fair amount of citizen input on this particular one,” said Precinct 3 Councilor Virginia “Ginny” DeSorgher. “There were people that thought this would be too much power in the hands of one person. However, I understand (the mayor’s) argument to be an equal member.”
Forgey, however, said excluding the mayor in this capacity would be an issue of equality between elected officials.
“In some ways, saying the mayor shall not be able to sit as the chair would be the same as saying the council president is forbidden to participate in subcommittee meetings,” Forgey said. “It doesn’t seem to be an equal piece of elected authority. … I would caution people to think about what it means to be an elected official.”
A majority of the discussion on the subject at the City Council’s Wednesday night meeting pertained to confusion around what a “yes” vote, or choosing to override the veto, would mean for the charter process.
Forgey said tabling the vote, or sending the issue back to the Appointments and Ordinances Committee, would be “a good way” to gather more information. Councilors were told, however, that tabling the vote on the veto was likely not an option due to the timeframe of the charter review process.
Councilors also expressed a desire to hear from the School Committee on whether it was a change they supported.
“The mayor and School Committee haven’t had a chance to talk about it in depth,” said At-Large Councilor Penny Ricketts. “What was going on when we started putting it through … they were having three, four, five times the amount of meetings — they were dealing with a lot more at the schools than we were at council.”
She said while the School Committee had been made aware it was coming up, they were “so swamped.”
“I think a lot of it was more about the time and what they were going through,” Ricketts said. “If you remember, the School Committee and mayor were able to come to those (appointments and ordinances) meetings because they had meetings the same night as well.”
After a lengthy discussion, councilors ultimately voted 8-2 to uphold the veto at Wednesday’s meeting, with Precinct 4 Councilor John Bottomley and Precinct 8 Councilor Doug Mayo voting to override the veto. Gilmour abstained, and Precinct 2 Councilor Dan Guin and Precinct 7 Councilor Jasper Lapienski were absent.
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne