PEABODY — The Peabody City Council discussed some of the city’s charter during a committee of the whole meeting last week, going over language and voting on edits and changes.
The goal of these meetings is to update the charter to make it more modern. A few edits were passed last week and others are waiting to be discussed in upcoming meetings.
One of the edits the council voted on was to take the word “vice president” out of the charter, since the council does not have a vice president, so it does not apply.
Councilor Jon Turco then brought up language in the warrant that says the president should serve for a one-year term, with the warrant’s definition of the year being considered a calendar year.
He said the current president’s term lasts longer than a calendar year, so he suggested defining this better to avoid the possibility of being left a few days without a council president. The council ended up passing a motion to change this language to include a one-year term ending with the organization of city government.
The council also spent time discussing the warrant’s rules around a ward councilor temporarily having to leave the ward. The current charter says if the ward councilor leaves the ward, then that seat will be made immediately vacant.
Turco brought this up, citing some reasons for having to temporarily leave the ward as a fire and having to relocate, having to temporarily move for a family emergency, or being foreclosed on. The committee agreed to have Attorney Barrett review this and put together appropriate language.
The council spent about two hours discussing and voting on parts of the charter, and the clerk is making agreed-upon edits.
The rest of the charter will be discussed in upcoming meetings, but dates have not yet been set.
