PEABODY — At a Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday evening, City Councilors amended sections of the city’s charter in an effort to update the document, which had remained unchanged for a century.
The primary task of the councilors was to revise sections of the document to update language that they deemed outdated.
The first section of the charter up for discussion was Sections 3-4, which concerned temporary appointments to city offices, and councilors amended the language to “revisit the term charter,” according to Ward 4 Councilor Julie Daigle.
Each of the 11 councilors present voted to approve this update for line 9 in Section 3 through 4.
The next section of the charter the council tackled was Sections 3-5, concerning communications special meetings. Councilors homed in on paragraph 5-11 of the section, which concerned communications of the City Council.
“The language in this paragraph to me is proposed fine. We have to make sure we have what we need for Peabody,” said Ward 6 Councilor Mark O’Neil.
“I’m glad there’s an interest here and an appetite to update it,” replied Daigle.
The council agreed to revisit discussion of the section in their next meeting.
Councilors moved on to amending the portion of the charter concerning the approval of mayor veto, where Daigle requested that the city clerk have more than three business days to provide the minutes to the mayor and asked for it to be extended to 10 business days.
“I think a time frame is relevant here. What makes three business days enough? What if the clerk is sick, has vacation, or something else happens? It’s a matter of expectation here. I motion to approve three days to 10,” said Daigle.
Ward 3 Councilor Stephanie Peach praised the “updated structure” provided by the change, which won unanimous approval from the council.
“There was no previous discussion as to why it was held as three business days instead of five or 10 or whatever the time-frame. With this there is now some sort of updated structure,” Peach said.
The final portion of the charter discussed was Sections 3-7, concerning the temporary absence of the mayor. Councilors amended the section to allot for a 30 day leave of absence before the City Council president proceeds to move into the mayoralty. Previously, the charter had granted the mayor a 60 day leave. Each council member voted yes for this change.
Magella Cantara can be reached at [email protected].
