Worcester Councilors To Explore City Charter Change

Worcester MA

15 June, 2022

9:06 AM

Description

WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester City Council has taken a small step toward possibly updating the city charter, which could lead to the first changes in close to 40 years. At Tuesday's meeting, councilors voted unanimously to allow a council subcommittee to explore possibly changes a commission could make to the charter. The city charter is a set of rules for how local government operates — including everything from term limits to the powers of the mayor. Worcester voters last approved a charter revision in 1987. The idea to explore a charter commission came amid a discussion about aligning city council and school districts. After a lawsuit last year, Worcester has agreed to create a district system for school committee members as opposed to the current all at-large system. But the proposed new school committee districts will not line up with the five Worcester City Council districts. That creates a scenario where a single council district could have several school committee districts inside it. Some school committee members and councilors fear the overlapping lines could confuse voters. At-Large Councilor Thu Nguyen asked the council to vote "to ensure city council and school committee districts are parallel, so as to ensure public clarity." That request spurred backlash from several councilors, who said it would be "arrogant" for the council to redraw voting districts without input from voters. "It's pure arrogance to think we can tell the people of Worcester what they should be thinking," At-Large Councilor Donna Colorio said. "They need to vote, they need to have their input." "I don't think it's out of arrogance to have the conversation," Nguyen said, suggesting their district alignment proposal should at least go to a council committee for a discussion. Colorio and fellow councilors Moe Bergman and Candy Mero-Carlson said the city would need to go through the charter revision process to change council districts. "To think 11 people should make that decision is, in my opinion, arrogant," Bergman said. He also suggested Worcester should wait until after the 2023 election to see if the new school committee districts cause any confusion among voters. Under state law, the public can petition to convene a charter commission. Registered voters can then run to serve on a nine-member charter commission, which studies possible changes, and then sends those changes back to voters. The process would play out over two election cycles. District 1 Councilor Sean Rose suggested it might be time for Worcester to examine a charter change. The city's population reached 205,000 after the 2020 Census, meaning each district councilor represents about 41,000 people — nearly the same population as Marlborough, which has seven council districts, Rose said. The council's municipal and legislation operations committee, chaired by At-Large Councilor Khrystian King, will handle the charter commission discussion. Nguyen's request to align council and school committee districts was tabled in a 6 to 4 vote, effectively killing the measure.