The Medford City Council passed an updated version of the city’s charter in a 6–1 vote on April 15, nearing the end of a years-long process that now moves to the Massachusetts State House and, ultimately, Medford voters.
The current draft, which has received final approval from the mayor, results from several months of back-and-forth between the City Council and the Charter Study Committee, a group of Medford residents appointed by Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn.
The document proposes significant changes to the composition of the city government, including shifting from a seven-member City Council in which all members are at-large to an 11-member council with eight wards and three at-large members.
The City Council had voted to move to a nine-member composition plan for the council and school committee composed of six elected members plus the mayor, which would involve combining the city’s existing wards into districts.
However, citing results from the Charter Study Committee’s survey, Lungo-Koehn returned a version of the charter to the City Council on April 1 that restored ward representation for the council but not the school committee. The council made minor edits in its two final meetings on the charter, reducing the length of time until the next charter review and the number of mayor-appointed members of future charter review committees.
“While many Councilors raised serious questions and voiced strong opinions about issues of representation, balance of power, other policies, and the process itself, in the spirit of compromise, the Council submitted a second amended City Charter to the Mayor by a 6-1 vote on April 15, 2025,” a statement from the City Council read.
Some councilors noted that while the mayor’s changes in the second version were small, they give the mayor unnecessary powers.
“It’s feeling like the changes that have been made are to increase the mayor’s power, which doesn’t feel necessary or reasonable because Medford has such a strong mayor construct in the city already,” Councilor Emily Lazzaro said, in reference to the second draft Lungo-Koehn submitted.
In the approved version, the mayor will be removed as chair of the school committee but will remain as a voting member. Councilor Kit Collins had proposed to remove the mayor from the school committee altogether, citing balance of power as an issue. The amendment was rejected, and Collins was ultimately the only councilor to vote against the final version of the charter.
According to Collins, a charter without the removal of the mayor from the school committee would not represent “a meaningful change to the level of representation that residents will enjoy.”
Lungo-Koehn, who made a virtual appearance at the April 15 meeting, responded to criticisms of her power and the attempt to remove her from the school committee. She said that while it would be personally enjoyable, removing the mayor as chair was not right for the city.
“The balance of power in Medford is normal for our form of government,” Lungo-Koehn said.
The timing of the process has also been scrutinized by some city councilors. Lungo-Koehn and the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management, which worked with the city throughout the process, recommended submitting the charter to the State House by mid-April at the latest. Lungo-Koehn released a statement after the council’s April 8 meeting, urging city council to pass the charter as soon as possible.
However, some councilors felt as though the process has been rushed since January, including some saying the council should not serve simply as a “rubber stamp” for the mayor. Councilors said this was especially the case after Lungo-Koehn sent the charter back.
“We had one week to read through all of the changes and she asked us to unanimously pass it with no more amendments,” Lazzaro said. “I don’t think that’s the best way to make sure that everybody is on board.”
“Given the council’s relatively limited involvement before January of this year and that the council had three months to even consider the charter proposal, I was hopeful that there would be more support and understanding that changes that we might want to make would be included in the final product,” City Council President Zac Bears said.
In her appearance before the council, Lungo-Koehn said their limited timeline for the council’s review was to allow the Charter Study Committee to do “their due diligence.”
Councilors emphasized general public support for the charter and their hopes that compromises could be made.
“I think it’s important to not let perfect be the enemy of good,” Councilor Justin Tseng said in the April 15 meeting.
