On Nov. 4, Somerville residents will decide whether or not to adopt the city’s first new charter in more than a century and whether to lengthen the mayor’s term from two to four years. However, voters will not receive mailed explanations of the ballot questions after the City Council postponed adopting a state statute that would have required it.
If adopted, Chapter 53, Section 18B of the Massachusetts General Laws would require the city to mail an informational packet to every registered voter containing a summary of ballot questions prepared by the city solicitor and written arguments from both supporters and opponents. Councilors estimated the mailers will cost $40,000.
City councilors discussed the statute at their Sept. 11 meeting, but ultimately sent it back to the Legislative Matters Committee for further review. City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, who is also a vice chair of the committee, said that they needed more time to evaluate the statute before adopting it.
“When you’re writing [and] considering laws, you want to fully understand them, and we don’t do that in a two-hour [City Council] meeting where we’re learning about this for the first time,” Ewen-Campen said.
“I wish this had been adopted a long time ago,” City Councilor and mayoral candidate for Somerville Jake Wilson said. “Unfortunately, we've left it [so] late here that there are serious concerns about the ability to actually comply with an ordinance if we enacted it.”
Ewen-Campen discussed that the statute was originally proposed to City Councilor Will Mbah by residents.
“A group of residents reached out to [City Councilor] Mbah and told him about this provision passed [in Massachusetts] general law and that we could adopt [it].” Ewen-Campen said. “[But] we were told there’s not time to enact it before the upcoming election.”
Some residents, including former Alderman Jack Connolly (GA’81), criticized the council’s decision not to postpone adopting the statute and called it a “betrayal of public trust.”
“This is a very simple thing, to adopt Chapter 53, Section 18B right out of the [Massachusetts] general laws,” Connolly said. “They could have done it very easily at one or two of the City Council meetings [but] they simply chose not to.”
He emphasized the importance of physical mailers, as many residents lack easy access to online sources.
“A lot of people in their late 40s and 50s, they don’t use the internet as much as a lot of millennials and Gen Zers do … so it’s not easy for them to find this information,” Connolly said.
Connolly added that 49 out of 59 Massachusetts cities already include initiative and referendum procedures in their charters, leaving Somerville as one of the few municipalities that has not adopted the statute.
While he argued the council had ample opportunity to adopt the statute and that it “could have been done within a day or two,” Wilson pointed to unforeseen delays in approving the new city charter that left little time to take up new measures.
“We’re paying the price now because of the long delay in getting the charter to the State House. … Everyone agrees [the statute] is a good idea. Unfortunately, the timeline is just terrible right now,” Wilson said. “It’s really disappointing that it dragged on the way it did, and that we find ourselves in the situation now.”
Wilson cited the reasons for the delay as the mayor’s prolonged review of the charter — lasting roughly a year — and an extended final negotiation process.
Both Ewen-Campen and Wilson expressed support for eventual adoption of the statute and stressed its importance in keeping residents well-informed.
“Ballot questions can be really complicated, or if you’re not paying attention, they can seem like they’re coming out of left field. We don’t want voters to be making split-second decisions," Ewen-Campen said. “We want them to have time to think about this and understand what the arguments are.”
The statute also raises broader questions about the accessibility of public documents in the city. Harriotte Hurie Ranvig, who has been blind since age 14 and is vice chair of the Somerville Commission for Persons with Disabilities, explained that she and the commission have been advocating for the city to make all public documents — including the municipal ballot questions — available in all formats and languages to strengthen civic participation.
“Shortly after the last [SCPD] meeting, I had heard no talk about how we were going to get this information to the residents of Somerville as printed documents [and] embossed and on the web,” Ranvig said. “[The city] needed to make it available in all forms, in all public places.”
Wilson added that he, along with another colleague, is considering a Jan. 1 start date for adopting the statute so it will be in place for the next election.
“In the meantime … we’re going to have to make sure that the city does what it can to educate voters about [the charter],” Wilson said.
Ewen-Campen said he will try his best to conduct outreach about the ballot questions and city charter reforms.
“I’ll be doing everything I can to get the word out,” he said. “I know the city has a communications plan … but we can definitely provide all the background and information. In my capacity as a politician, outside of my role as a city councilor, I can use my miniature megaphone to make sure that people know that this is good. A lot of hard work went into it.”
