Since my letter to the editor regarding the Council’s actions regarding making the Mayor Chair of the Pittsfield School Committee, an argument has been swirling around that there is a state law that says the mayor should be chair of the school committee, which Pittsfield is not following.
More specifically, the law being mentioned is Massachusetts General Law Chapter 43 Section 31. In fact, the law does state “The school committee shall consist of the mayor, who shall be the chairman, and six members elected at large.” On a first reading, it does sound like the Mayor, by law should be chair. Pittsfield has a six member school committee, elected at large, with the Mayor also being there as well, so under this law they should be chair, right?
However, context is important here. Chapter 43 primarily deals with a certain type of City Charters know as “plan charters”. They consist of Plan A through Plan F which have different structures of government. Cities can adopt these plan charters through a process outlined in that chapter, where they basically follow the provisions in Chapter 43. Cambridge is one such city, where their charter is basically excerpts from MGL.
While Pittsfield has a structure of government that aligns with what a Plan B Charter would look like, which as MGL states is “a city government and legislative body composed of a mayor and city council, the councillors being elected partly at large and partly from districts or wards of the city”, and Pittsfield is commonly referred to as a Plan B form of government, Pittsfield does not have a Plan B charter. Instead, we have a special act charter, approved by Chapter 72 of the Acts of 2013.
A special act charter allows to have a different form of government than what is outlined in MGL, such as having a separate chair of a school committee, or have differently sized school committee and city council. It allows for a structure of government that serves what Pittsfield thinks is best, not what the state thinks its best. This is best shown by the fact that Pittsfield’s charter is not just excerpts of MGL.
And if it were the case that Pittsfield had to comply with the provisions in Chapter 43 (which we do not have to), then there would be other issues than just having a non-mayor chair of the School Committee:
- The City Clerk would not be elected, instead appointed for a 3 year term by the City Council (Section 18)
- School Committee members would have 4 year staggered terms (Section 31)
- The City Council would have to vote to appoint a Council President every year, not every two years currently (Section 59)
- If there was a vacancy in a ward councilor seat, that vacancy would have to be filled by a special election, which is not the case in Pittsfield (Section 59A)
Unless Pittsfield wants to adopt a straight Plan B charter (which most cities are moving away from anyways), then we do not have to follow the provisions of Chapter 43.