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Building out the 2025 charter

Updated October 12, 2026

What's happening

Somerville's new charter (approved by voters in November 2025 and enacted as Chapter 31 of the Acts of 2025) is being wired into the city's ordinances one piece at a time, and the biggest piece is still missing. The charter calls for a comprehensive administrative code. Until one exists, a "continuation of governance" clause keeps the old ordinances running even where the charter has moved authority elsewhere.

The newest piece is a cleanup of the ordinances themselves. On October 8 the Council approved, enrolled and ordained in a single night, 11-0, an amendment to Chapter 1 setting up the decennial review of the Code of Ordinances the charter requires; a motion to reconsider failed (Oct 8 digest). The code hasn't been recodified since 1963. Meanwhile the Review of Multiple-Member Bodies Committee is working through the city's boards and commissions and owes the Council a report by its first December meeting. The ordinance that would move Council meetings from Thursday to Tuesday starting in 2028 is stuck in Legislative Matters. And the sharpest open question, how much the Council can do about the mayor's budget, went unanswered in June.

The story

What changed on paper

Legislative and policy analyst Brendan Salisbury walked councilors through the new rules on January 22. Requests to the administration are now "resolutions," and "orders" are reserved for information the Council can legally demand. The Council has 30 days to act on a department head, city attorney or CAO appointment and 60 days on a board seat. Silence means approval, and rejections require written reasons.

The headline: "The mayor no longer has unilateral authority to reorganize city government." Under Section 5-1, organizing the city into agencies "may be accomplished only through an administrative order submitted to the city council by the mayor," which the Council may approve or disapprove after a hearing but not amend. No such order has come before the Council. Mayor Jake Wilson's nine-department cabinet arrived inside the FY27 budget book instead (Wilson's City Hall reorganization). The Council ordained three alignment ordinances unanimously on February 26, including the Sec. 2-186 board review.

Recodifying the code

The October 8 ordinance leaves the manner of the review to the city attorney, city clerk and Council president, with recommendations due by the last regular December meeting of the year a review begins, and a way to ask for more time. Salisbury's plan runs in two phases. First comes recodification: removing archaic rules such as those on grazing horses and chest X-rays for food workers, unifying style and renumbering the 15 chapters. Then comes substantive review of ordinances that draw complaints. The code holds "no less than nine definitions of owner," he said. Recommendations will arrive as a memo, a full redline and a list of substantive issues, with at least two public hearings; he hopes for initial recommendations before April 2027, more realistically before summer recess. Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin hoped clearer ordinances would mean enforcement of ones like the vacant storefront rule. Salisbury: "no spoilers, but stay tuned."

The board and commission cull

Sec. 2-186 sets up a five-member review committee, repeated every ten years. Its report is due no later than the Council's first December meeting, and the Council must vote the recommendations up or down as a resolution within 90 days. Resident Chris Dwan chairs it and Derrick Rice is vice chair; the other members are Brenna Broderick (the mayor's community partnerships liaison), Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan and City Clerk Courtney Henderson.

The August 5 agenda listed six bodies pending recommendation: the Urban Design Commission, Human Rights Commission, Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Women's Commission, Fair Housing Commission and Council for Aging Persons. Three of the six are staffed by the department that just lost five positions (Racial and Social Justice becomes Equity and Belonging). The September 23 meeting took up the Traffic Board and the PILOT Advisory Task Force (see The Tufts PILOT working group), the possible dissolution of the Emergency Management Advisory Council and four retentions (agenda); the outcome is not in our sources yet. Rice is running for the Ward 3 Council seat (Three Council seats turn over).

Thursday or Tuesday

Item #26-1946 would move Council meetings from Thursday at 7 p.m. to Tuesday at 6 p.m. beginning in 2028. Salisbury made the case on May 5: Thursday late nights mean staff work a full day and then an evening, and Tuesday votes reach the mayor before the weekend. Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott put it bluntly on May 14: "if it's not broke, don't fix it." The ordinance stayed in committee. The Council did tighten Rule 4, 9-0, on May 14, setting earlier filing deadlines and limiting the supplemental agenda.

Group petitions are getting used

Section 2-11 lets 50 registered voters demand a public hearing within three months. All three hearings the Legislative Matters Committee held on September 8 came about that way: body-worn cameras (Surveillance, police technology and AI), the ethical procurement ordinance (Divestment and the ethical procurement ordinance) and the Davis Square Neighborhood Council (Davis Square Neighborhood Council). Section 2-12, the vacancy clause, gets its first real test with the Ward 2 and 3 special election on February 2 and March 24, 2027 (Three Council seats turn over).

The power question nobody settled

The most consequential dispute is over charter Section 6-4 and the school budget. City Solicitor Cindy Amara told the Finance Committee on June 16 that the provision treats the School Committee as a department head submitting a proposal, and that the mayor isn't bound by its number. Scott, who chaired the charter committee and drafted the provision, disputed that reading. At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo observed that the Council is left with only an up-or-down vote on the school budget. See school buildings.

What's next

  • November 1 / December 1: the charter's capital improvement plan deadlines, being met for the first time (The capital plan: fix it first, borrow last).
  • First Council meeting in December: the review committee's report is due. The Council then has 90 days to vote.
  • December 31: three councilors leave, and the Section 2-12 clock starts (Three Council seats turn over).
  • Spring–summer 2027: Salisbury's initial recodification recommendations, followed by public hearings.
  • Unscheduled: the meeting-day ordinance (#26-1946), item 26-1274 on ticket-writing staff, and the administrative code.