Good evening members of the City Council,
I’m William Garrity, I reside at 64 Alcove Street in Pittsfield, and I am a 19 year old candidate for School Committee. I’m here speaking on item number 15 regarding amending the City Charter to implement term limits and “rotation” of elected officials. I am recommending that the City Council file this proposal instead of referring it to the Charter Review Committee.
I believe this is a problematic proposal that will lead to instability in city government. By design this proposal would make it so that all elected positions on the city council and the school committee would change between elections, which would lead to mass instability in leadership between terms. There is a reason why the surrounding towns around us have staggered terms for office, as that allows for a more smooth transition if the whole composition of an elected body changes.
I also believe this proposal would not solve the problem that it is supposed to solve, limiting incumbency in office, as it does not limit how many non-consecutive terms elected officials can serve. In fact it could lead to a situation where there are still a set of incumbents in office, though which set of incumbents flips back and forth every term.
And this amendment also contains a proposal to require that school committee members be of the age of 30 years or older in order to serve on the school committee. Nevermind the fact that this proposal doesn’t contain an age limit for mayor or city council, I am against any measure to put an age requirement for running for any office in the city of Pittsfield. In a time where young people in Pittsfield are leaving, Pittsfield should be attracting young people back to this city. By putting an age limit for office, the city would be implying that it does not care about the voices of young people like me in this city. How would this implicit statement help to keep and attract young people to this city in a time where it is very much needed for our future?
For these reasons, I believe this petition should be filed and not be referred to the Charter Review Committee as I feel it would not be the most effective use of the committee’s time deliberating over this problematic petition that would not even solve the stated problems it is supposed to fix.
Thank you.