The Role of the City Council in Somerville’s Government

This letter was submitted to the city council of Somerville, MA on December 7, 2022 as public comment on the city’s charter review process.

Honorable Councilors,

Over the past few years, I have observed hundreds of meetings of the city council and its committees. I have participated in our civic conversation as an independent journalist, worked as an activist and organizer on traffic safety and environmental justice issues, served on mayoral working groups and advisory committees, and even gotten to know several of you individually at office hours and other events.

As we enter the final phases of charter review, it seems timely to address an important topic that is seldom spoken aloud: The most fractious, intractable debates on the council do not stem from disagreement on the issues. Rather, these debates are proxies for an underlying disagreement about the role of the council and the job of city councilor.

To what extent, if at all, should the council serve as a check and a balance to the mayor?

The charter is ambiguous. Title 1, Sec 2 says, “the executive department shall never exercise any legislative power, and the legislative department shall never exercise any executive power.” Later sections grant the mayor the power both to veto and to propose legislation and require council approval for certain staff appointments and budget appropriations.

This ambiguity is at the root of many of the corrosive, wasteful, and ultimately ineffective debates in the chambers. No matter the issue or the arguments, most councilors vote as if it is not their job to intervene in any but the most gallingly ill-thought appropriations and staff confirmations.

I disagree with this perspective. It puts the council in a docile, servile role, as an audience to the executive. The chambers become a place where the mayor can expect to roll out budgets, and to announce staff picks and initiatives to polite applause, softball questions, and a speedy approval. This has clearly been what both of the administrations I have observed have expected, which sets the stage for the cringeworthy, though occasionally amusing, verbal sparring we see from the legislative liaison, solicitor, chief of police and other staff — who endure hours of council meetings knowing that the spectacle makes no difference to the ultimate result.

Charter reform is a rare opportunity to engage with this question directly.

Personally, I believe that the city council should act as a strong, co-equal, peer to the Mayor. We should empower the council so that our public processes and hearings, presentations, resolutions, and late-night orations on policy matters will not continue to be such an ineffective waste of time.

I urge you to approve the recommended updates to the charter granting the council practical authority over appointments and vacancies on commissions and committees. You should have authority to add to the budget in addition to making cuts. You should have staff support and the ability to expend funds — particularly for much needed independent legal advice.

I suspect that some of you will be concerned that expanding the council’s powers might increase the time commitment required of city councilors. I can only say that, from my perspective, you are already putting in the time and might as well act to make it more effective.

I urge these changes because I believe that daylight is the best disinfectant, that better information leads to better decisions, and that open and public process — no matter how painful — eventually leads to superior outcomes.

The council is, by far, the more transparent of our two branches of government, mostly due to open meeting law. By contrast, the workings of the mayor’s office are opaque to all but the most tenacious of civic watchdogs, as well as a network of city insiders who use access to achieve results. I believe that we should rest more power out in the open and place checks on influence from the shadows.

Vigorous debates in the chambers give a mistaken impression of a powerful council. I was certainly taken in as I started to engage with the city several years ago. Despite all the tough talk, most of the council votes as though its practical power over policy is limited to politely asking to have lightbulbs replaced and walls painted. This disconnect makes a mockery of advocacy, wastes community engagement, and threatens to dissipate the civic activism that is so foundational to Somerville’s culture. The disconnect comes to a reeking fruition each year with the spectacle of budget review. A full month of late-night meetings yields only a few tiny and ultimately pointless line-item cuts, coupled with groveling resolutions that are ultimately ignored and forgotten just months later.

I support an empowered city council because it is dispiriting and toxic to waste time, energy, intellect, and passion on a body where the majority votes as if their job is to listen politely before approving whatever the mayor puts forward. If you agree, I urge you to clarify the council’s role as a co-equal partner to the mayor in our charter. If you disagree, I urge you to be direct with residents going forward — particularly on the campaign trail — about your views on the balance of power in the city and what you intend to accomplish during your time in office.

Respectfully,
Chris Dwan