Statement from Mayor Lungo-Koehn on the City Charter Delay

Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn released the following statement following last night's tabling of the City Charter at the City Council meeting.

"Last night, after adding several amendments, the City Council voted to table the City Charter resolution, delaying its discussion to next week’s meeting.

The staff at the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston have made it clear that the state legislature prefers to be in possession of an approved Charter document by the end of March, with mid-April being the absolute latest date it can be delivered so it appears on the November ballot.

There was so much work done by the Charter Study Committee leading us to this point, and if the deadline is not met then all the hours spent crafting this document, leading public outreach campaigns, conducting a public survey, listening to stakeholders and experts, as well as translating materials for our immigrant community, and providing language translators and ASL interpreters at public info sessions, will have been to no avail.

We all have made significant progress on compromises over the last several months and while there are provisions in the Charter, I delivered to the Council on April 1 that I disagree with; it closely reflected the recommendations of the people and the Charter Study Committee.

What I cannot support however is the amendment that was voted on last night by the Council completely removing the Mayor from the School Committee. The Mayor must be a voting member of that body and be intimately involved with school policy, labor negotiations and perhaps most importantly, budget considerations.

While having Monday nights off sounds great and would allow me or whoever is Mayor in the future to enjoy more time at home with family or on other work-related matters, it’s not in the best interest of our community and will lead to major issues come budget time. The Mayor is a voting member of the School Committee in virtually every City in Massachusetts.

The only possible reason I can glean from this amendment is to limit the duties and obligations of the Mayor. Based on the study committee’s review and report and the Collins Center’s belief, the powers and responsibilities of this office are consistent throughout municipalities in the Commonwealth.

I strongly urge the council to take a step back and hopefully change their minds so we can again accomplish something long overdue for our community, together, which is a new governing document for the people."