Mayor Lungo-Koehn Delivers Updated Medford City Charter to City Council for Review

After years of work, dozens of public meetings, and hearing directly from the people on the most pressing needs of the City, an updated City Charter has been crafted and delivered to the City Council for review before heading to the State Legislature for final approval and implementation, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn announced.

Medford’s charter establishes its governing system and structure. It specifies term lengths for elected officials, the presence or absence of term limits, the composition of the City Council and School Committee, the City’s form of executive leadership, and more.

“Revising the City’s outdated charter has been an arduous task and I’m thankful to the members of the Charter Study Committee and the staff at the Collins Center for all their work in shaping this critical document with the help and input of the community,” Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said. “I, along with many others, have been trying to get this complicated and comprehensive project done since 2016 and I’m confident we are now ready to move forward with enacting these changes and delivering on the promises made to the community that their needs and priorities would be heard and incorporated into our charter.”

Two years ago, the Mayor formed a Charter Study Committee to comprehensively study the City’s current charter, gather input from the community, and propose recommendations on changes to the existing document, which had not been reviewed in over 40 years. The members of the committee have been working in collaboration with the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston to develop a governing document that reflects the current needs of the City, offers comprehensive policy solutions and ensures that all members of the community are fairly and accurately represented.

Recommended changes to the charter include:

• Increasing the number of City Councilors to 11 with 8 councilors being elected by each ward and the remaining 3 members being councilors-at-large who shall be nominated and elected by and from the voters at large. 
• The term of office of the mayor shall be 4 years.
• No person shall be elected to the office of mayor for more than 4, 4-year consecutive terms.
• The school committee shall consist of 7 members: 2 members elected at large by the voters of the city; and 1 each elected from the following districts comprised of combined wards within the city: wards 1 and 7, wards 2 and 3, wards 4 and 5, and wards 6 and 8.

The Council will review the recommended changes in their public meetings over the next two months and vote on a Home Rule Petition. If approved by a supermajority, the petition will then head to the state legislature for final approval and implementation and a vote of the people in November 2025.

You find more information including the revised charter delivered to the City Council at medfordma.org/charter.