tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34813364.post7151063051910681954..comments2023-04-29T10:46:15.521-04:00Comments on Western Mass Politics and Insight: Take My Council, Please: Trash Fee Lives...Biomass Looms...Matt S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09757055831124959814noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34813364.post-7609344363579642562011-05-18T15:47:08.588-04:002011-05-18T15:47:08.588-04:00I am afraid the law department did not drop the ba...I am afraid the law department did not drop the ball, the council and the legislature did when they passed the ward rep bill that ultimately landed on the ballot. If you go back to my piece around the time Rivera was seated, I think I linked to the special acts that spell out how the process works. Generally speaking, municipalities are not governed by things like Constitutions that require some heavy lifting to change. We have charters which have an arduous process if we do everything ourselves, but special acts from the legislature are the most expedient process. They often leave things out though, because they are focused on one issue. They also tend to play around with the general laws that we all technically operate under. For example, Springfield is a type "A" city, but type "A" cities have all at-large councils. However, like many other cities, we have a special act that changes the law only with respect to us. Holyoke, by comparison uses none of the city plans, but instead a specially written charter dating back to the late nineteenth century. That is the source of all the talk about changing the council there, you may have heard about.<br /><br />I suppose the quick and dirty way to look at it is that the only restriction the legislature has is that it cannot usually legislate with respect to only one community unless asked to. Other than that, between home rule petitions and laws that affect communities generally, they can do whatever they want. We (that is Springfield and the other 350 communities) exist at the Commonwealth's discretion. In this case, both the council and the legislature failed to remember the past special acts both passed with respect to succession when writing our ward statute.Matt S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09757055831124959814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34813364.post-42770052759712161622011-05-18T14:39:50.524-04:002011-05-18T14:39:50.524-04:00From sunny Florida....
I agree on the ward 6 ...From sunny Florida....<br /> I agree on the ward 6 issue. I feel law dept dropped the ball when we went to ward rep. and should have called for a special election as other cities do in such a case... I find it wrong not to plan ahead for such issues to occur ..seem to reactive instead of pro-active which in my opinion caused problems which could have been avoided. Our law dept. could use some new life!<br /> NickyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com